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A 51-year-old man was found guilty of the murder of an Irish woman in Australia 23 years ago.
Bradley Edwards was found guilty of murdering Ciara Glennon, 27, in Perth in March 1997.
He was also found guilty of the murder of another woman, Jane Rimmer, a year earlier.
Edwards was acquitted of the murder of a third woman, Sarah Spears, in 1996. Her body has never been recovered.
He will be sentenced in December.
Dubbed the Claremont Serial Killings, the deaths of the three women convulsed Perth and Western Australia over a fifteen-month period in the late 1990s.
The crimes began when 18-year-old Sarah Spears disappeared in the Claremont area of the city in January 1996.
Six months later, in June 1996, 23-year-old Jane Rimmer was murdered. Her body was found two months later.
On March 15, 1997, Ciara Glennon was kidnapped. The 27-year-old lawyer’s remains were found north of Perth the following month.
The crimes triggered the largest homicide investigation in Australian history, spanning nearly a quarter of a century.
Despite an extensive police investigation and numerous public appeals, it was not until forensic evidence was submitted for analysis in 2008 that a breakthrough in the investigation occurred.
The tests compared the DNA samples found under Ciara Glennon’s fingernails with someone who had not previously been suspected of being involved in the murders.
Finally, in December 2016, the sample was compared to Bradley Robert Edwards.
He had been arrested in connection with several previous attacks on a number of women.
Today, in the Central Courts of Justice in Perth, Judge Stephen Hall delivered his verdict after a 95-day trial.
He said he was satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt that Jane Rimmer and Ciara Glennon were killed by the same person.
And he was satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt that this person was Bradley Edwards.
Justice Hall said there were a number of similarities between the deaths of the two women.
In both cases they had defensive wounds and both had been killed in the same way. They both had fibers in their bodies, which were consistent with being in a car owned by the company Edwards worked for.
DNA evidence was the key factor in securing the conviction.
The trial was conducted without a jury, given the enormous level of coverage that was attached to the investigation over the past two decades.
After the verdict was rendered, the relatives of the three victims left the court separately. Ms. Glennon’s parents, Denis, who is originally from Westport in Co. Mayo and his wife Una, did not comment to reporters as they left the building.
Police Commissioner Chris Dawson told the media that the family did not wish to make further public statements at this time.
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