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Andrew Males scouted town centres and bus stops for his victims.
A seemingly charming and likeable young man, he walked the streets of Melbourne’s north-west with evil on his mind. It would be the making of a monster.
The many faces of Andrew Males.
Over two decades, this sadistic man with links to white supremacist groups, unleashed physical and sexual abuse on women he’d meet, raping and brutalising his victims, who now call him the “son of Satan”.
At times, he held them captive, including a teenage girl who he kept in the bungalow behind his Altona North house for weeks. When she tried to escape, she was beaten and raped. A belt was then used to tie her ankles, her mouth duct-taped shut to stop her from screaming.
It’s this violence that still lingers in the minds of those who brought him to justice.
“Some of what [the women] told us was so significant and unbelievable that they’d continually question why anyone would believe them,” Sergeant David McCann said.
One of his victims, Julie Maree Mulholland, said Males was always evil.
As a teenager, she said he helped her escape from juvenile detention before they entered into a relationship that would change the trajectory of her life.
Mulholland, who asked to be named, met Males when she was 15. At the time she was part of a proud military family from Melbourne’s east and grew up shooting rabbits on the family farm during the holidays near Talbot.
She said during those early years, Males became the leader of a street gang known as the People of Violence, or PIV, with its name emblazoned on his body with ink.
At 19, she had her first reconstructive surgery to fix the fractured nose Males caused but said it was broken again, more times than she could count, before it ever had the chance to heal.
Detective Senior Sergeant Steve Higgins and Senior Constable Matthew Whiteside from the family violence taskforce.Credit: Justin McManus
“He thrived off power and when he saw blood, it would excite him. His eyes, Andrew had hazel eyes, and he used to have this film come over them when he was mad. I used to think there was a demon inside of him,” Mulholland said.
“He used to put me in the boot to drive me in and out of places because he did not want other people to see the bruises on my face.
“I used to think, ‘shut your mouth Julie, don’t cry. If you cry, he’s going to like it more’.”
In 2016, a detective named David McCann came knocking on her door while Males was in custody for other violent offending. Males, she said, had been hiding in plain sight for decades, but it was the first time she believed someone genuinely wanted to hear her story.
Males was charged in June 2017 with more than 130 offences against nine women, following 18 months of police work.Credit: Paul Rovere
Speaking publicly about the investigation for the first time, McCann said he never imagined the level of sustained domestic abuse and sexual violence he’d uncover in the following 18 months.
The family violence taskforce had only launched months earlier in an effort to bolster family violence investigations with dedicated detectives, as already seen in other units including the homicide and armed crime squads.
“This was the taskforce’s first really significant investigation. We probably never expected it to get as big as it did, but the more we looked into it, the more we found,” McCann said.
Over the next five years, McCann set about understanding Males’ behaviour and identifying possible victims. Statements were taken from nine complainants, four of them choosing to proceed to trial.
‘They entrusted us with their stories, their experiences, and we were able to build an investigation around that.’
Some of the victims told police they were choked time and time again until they passed out, then repeatedly raped, while others were beaten with weapons including a hammer. A third woman was forced to have sex with Males in the dining room of his mother’s house.
“They entrusted us with their stories, their experiences, and we were able to build an investigation around that,” McCann said. “That’s probably when it became apparent that this was as big as it was. Andrew had a particular MO of how he would go from one relationship to the next.
“Andrew was very charming, very much a flatterer who’d pay close attention to these women at a time when they were feeling vulnerable and when they did not have anyone else telling them they were special or loved.
“He simply went down to the Sunshine and Footscray CBDs and would find someone. He had, like, a sixth sense about who he could approach … and was very successful in moving into their personal lives and establishing a relationship really quickly.”
McCann said many victims were kept silent out of fear and often blamed themselves after making up stories to friends and doctors about how they sustained their injuries.
“For me personally, one of the hardest statements to take was one of the victim’s sons. To have him talk about what happened to him and what he witnessed happening to his mother when he was 6, 7, 10 years of age was extremely difficult.
“Having to help Andrew drag his unconscious mother into the shower to try and wake her up … not knowing if she was alive or dead … has got to be extremely traumatic for a child,” McCann said. “As investigators, it can be almost impossible to compartmentalise that.”
Males was charged in June 2017 with more than 130 offences against nine women, following 18 months of police work.
He was ultimately found guilty – following two separate trials – of nine counts of rape, 10 counts of intentionally causing injury, three counts of making threats to kill, one of assault and one charge of false imprisonment, and jailed for 25 ½ years.
It proved to be a landmark prosecution for the then newly formed family violence taskforce. “At the end of it all, when he was found guilty, I got a tiny glimpse of the rage he was holding inside,” McCann recalled.
“He’s a very frightening individual.
“It’s hard to say whether there would be another Andrew Males out there. Hopefully, not just Victoria Police but as a society, we’ve made steps to make it harder for them to exist in the shadows. As we keep taking steps forward let there be nowhere for them to hide.”
More people than ever before are reporting abuse to police, with reporting up 2.8 per cent over the past year.
Between July and September this year alone, the family violence taskforce arrested 42 perpetrators wanted for questioning over allegations of serious family violence and helped extradite another from interstate.
Assistant Commissioner Lauren Callaway said Victoria was the first state to create a dedicated family violence command to deal with high-level offenders and help support local stations with complex investigations and advice.
With Queensland Police since following the lead and creating its own, Callaway said it was the way of the future given the volume of crime coming out of family violence, and sexual abuse each year.
The successful prosecution of Males, Callaway said, was the pinnacle of what could be achieved when they got all the elements right as far as prioritisation, attention and training.
Lauren Callaway is the first woman Assistant Commissioner overseeing Victoria Police’s family violence command.Credit: Eddie Jim
“This case showed real hope to us as an organisation, and to victims that it’s possible to get a phenomenal jail term for family violence offences,” Callaway said. “We will never know whether Males had the potential to commit a homicide, the stories lend themselves to the possibility that he probably did.”
For Mulholland, she said she still lives life feeling as though she is a “judged woman” for speaking out against her abuser but said secrets only pass on trauma to the next generation and create more victims.
She said for too long women lived fearing Males, isolating themselves and suffering in silence and believing that if they fled, he’s track them down, no matter where they went.
“As soon as people know that we’re domestic violence or rape victims, and we stayed with that man, people they don’t look down on us.
“To them, we’re just crazy. We’re the judged women. But secrets create more victims and that’s got to stop. We need to educate people, so they know this is about giving people back a voice,” she said.
“Us women we lost our say, we lost any right to speak or even to cry. He controlled everything right down to the food we ate and when we could shower. And whenever he’d get out of jail I’d run, but he’d always find me and turn up at my door. It didn’t matter how much I begged him not to touch me. Andrew is one evil man.
“The last words my grandmother said to me were ‘Julie, I want you to be a good girl’. I swore that I’d make her proud one day.
“The power was taken off me for 36 years of my life. Now I get it back.”
Support is available from the National Sexual Assault, Domestic Family Violence Counselling Service at 1800RESPECT (1800 737 732).
Coming soon: John Silvester lifts the lid on Australia’s criminal underworld. Subscribers can sign up to receive his Naked City newsletter every Thursday.
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