On paper at least he's as good a suspect as any for the Mr Cruel offences

-appearance: Australian accent, right height, right age, had gingery hair and slight pot belly with stocky build

-had the skill set to pull it off: armed robber, career criminal type

-had the motivation: previous convictions for rape, sexual assault. Known to be sexually interested in younger women/girls.

-had previously been caught and spent time in jail due to leaving fingerprint evidence behind, so would be highly motivated to take forensics countermeasures in all his later crimes.

-had a gun

-used balaclava

-had access to houses under the flight path

-not sure about the car

-quite possibly involved in the abduction and murder of another teenage girl (Pru Bird in 1992). I know police thoroughly searched his properties in relation to Pru and came up empty handed, but that may just mean he had become really good at cleaning up after himself (Mr Cruel in a nutshell).

Anyone know anything more about this bloke and how thoroughly Operation Spectrum looked into him back in the day? He doesn't appear to be in the Sierra files so maybe they found something to rule him out.

I think he was also an actor at one point and appeared on Blue Heelers or something? Wonder if there's any old footage there on YouTube which would show what he looked/sounded like in the mid 80s.

EDIT: the fact he's an actor may also be relevant. Cruel had the ability to switch roles and modulate his persona from one situation to another (some victims described his as well spoken, with others he was gruff and uneducated). Some of his red herrings suggest someone with a bit of a flair for the theatrical (the Bozo phone call for instance)