Peter Norris Dupas

"An evil, cold, baby-faced liar who would possibly cause the death of one of his victims if he wasn't straightened out."

Peter Norris Dupas is an Australian serial killer, currently serving three life sentences for murder. His violent criminal history spans more than three decades, and with every release from prison has been known to commit further crimes against women with increasing levels of violence. His criminal signature is to remove the breasts of his female victims.

At the age of 15,while wearing his school uniform Dupas, still attending high school at Waverley High School in the eastern Melbourne suburb of Glen Waverley, visited his next door neighbour requesting to borrow a knife for the purpose of peeling vegetables. As the woman commented on what a good boy he was for helping his mother with the cooking, he lunged at her with the knife and stabbed her in the stomach without saying a word. Dupas was apprehended after he stabbed the woman in the face, neck and hand as she attempted to fight off his attack. He later told police he could not help himself and did not know why he began to attack the woman.

"He knocked me down onto the floor and fell on top of me," the woman told the police. "He kept on stabbing me with the knife and I kept trying to ward him off. I felt the knife cut into my hands, mainly my right hand, my face and my neck.

In October 1969, a mortuary located at the Austin Hospital was broken into. The bodies of two
elderly women were mutilated using a pathologist's knife. One body contained a strange wound
inflicted with a knife to the area of the thigh.

In 1979, approximately two months after his release from prison, Dupas again molested women in four separate attacks over a 10 day period. On February 28, 1980, Dupas received a five year minimum prison sentence for three charges of assault with intent to rape, malicious wounding, assault with intent to rob, and indecent assault.

Dupas raped his first victim in a Frankston public toilet block. His next three victims escaped, but one, an elderly woman, was stabbed in the chest as she offered as much resistance as she could muster in an attempt to escape. His attempt at rape foiled, Dupas bolted. The woman told police that as she started getting to her feet after her assailant had run away, she realized that blood was pouring from the left side of her chest. She had been stabbed.

Murder of Nicole Patterson

Nicole Amanda Patterson was a 28 year old psychotherapist and youth counsellor employed with the Ardoch Youth Foundation, an organisation formed to assist young drug users. Patterson had
placed several classified ads in a local newspaper, the Northcote Leader in an effort to expand her client base.Two neighbours reported hearing the screams of a young woman coming from Patterson's house between 9.00a.m. and 9.30a.m. on the day of her murder. Attempts by Patterson's boyfriend to contact her in the afternoon failed, raising suspicions.

On April 19, 1999 the body of Nicole Amanda Patterson was discovered by a friend in the front
room of her Harper Street, Northcote residence. Patterson's friend had visited to attend for a dinner engagement. Upon hearing music from a radio and discovering the front door unlocked,
she entered the house and found the body of Patterson severely mutilated. Patterson died from 27 stab wounds to her chest and back. Her body was discovered naked from the waist down, with her skirt found in a nearby bedroom and her underwear around her ankles. Small pieces of yellow PVC tape were attached to her body and both of her breasts had been removed using a sharp knife. Her handbag and drivers licence were stolen during the attack The murder weapon and Patterson's breasts have never been recovered.

Murder of Margaret Maher

Margaret Josephine Maher, 40, was a prostitute working in the Melbourne area who was last seen alive at the Safeway supermarket at 12.20a.m. in Broadmeadows on October 4, 1997.
Her body was discovered under a cardboard box containing computer parts at by Ronald Frank McDonald, who made the discovery while he was collecting aluminium cans beside Cliffords Road, Somerton with his wife, Eva and their children. A black woollen glove was found near Maher's body which police later confirmed contained DNA matching that of Dupas.

A post-mortem examination revealed Maher had suffered a stab wound to her left wrist, bruising to her neck, blunt force trauma to the area of her right eyebrow and lacerations to
her right arm. Maher's left breast had been removed and placed into her mouth. At the time of Maher's murder, Dupas had been out of prison for just over a year after serving time for rape offences and was no longer under the supervision of the government corrections agency, Corrections Victoria.

Murder of Mersina Halvagis

Mersina Halvagis was a 25-year-old Melbourne woman murdered in an attack on November 4, 1997, while visiting her grandmother's grave in the Greek Orthodox section of Fawkner Cemetery in Fawkner, a northern suburb of Melbourne.The alarm was raised by Halvagis' boyfriend when she failed to meet with him later that day as the couple had planned. Halvagis' body was discovered at 4.35 a.m. on November 5, 1997, by Halvagis' fiancée in an empty plot, three graves from where her grandmother was buried. Police believe Halvagis was attacked from behind while kneeling to attend to a flower arrangement, and that she died from massive injuries, including 87 stab wounds about her knees, neck, with most wounds concentrated around her breasts. Her upper clothing had been pulled over her head towards her chest.

Murder of Helen McMahon

Helen McMahon was a 47-year-old woman found bashed to death on a Rye beach in February 13, 1985. McMahon was sunbathing topless on the beach when attacked. Her body was discovered naked, covered by her beach towel. The location of the murder of McMahon was nearby to the location where Dupas had earlier raped a 21-year-old woman at a beach in Blairgowrie, for which he was convicted and served a term of imprisonment. Police believe McMahon may have been Dupas' first murder victim, although her murder officially remains unsolved.

Murder of Renita Brunton

Dupas is a suspect in the murder of 31-year old Renita Brunton at Sunbury, Victoria in 1993

Murder of Kathleen Downes

Dupas is a suspect in the murder of 95-year-old Kathleen Downes at the Brunswick Lodge nursing home in Brunswick. Downes was stabbed to death at 6:30a.m. on December 31, 1997, a month after Halvagis' murder. Police investigations revealed Dupas had telephoned the nursing home some time before the murder. No charges have been laid regarding Downes' murder.

On August 2007 Peter Dupas was sentenced to serve life imprisonment.