Paul Denyer: The Frankston Serial Killer

Only a Matter of Time

Paul Denyer, age 9

The Frankston Serial Killer was born Paul Charles Denyer in Sydney on April 14, 1972, the third of six children, five boys and a girl to English working class immigrants, Maureen and Anthony Denyer, who came to Australia in 1965 and eventually settled in Campbelltown near Sydney.

The only significant thing about Paul Denyer's infancy was that as a baby he rolled off a bench and knocked his head. This became a family joke for many years and whenever he would say or do anything out of the ordinary it would prompt the comment "that's because you fell on your head as a baby."

Denyer had trouble mixing with the other kids at kindergarten but seemed to grow out of this by the time he reached primary school and was just one of the normal kids. But that all changed when the family moved to Victoria in 1981 so that Anthony Denyer could take up the position as manager of The Steak Place in Centre Road, South Oakleigh, on the Frankston train line.

None of Anthony Denyer's children approved of the move. They were happy at Campbelltown and Paul especially found it extremely hard to make the adjustment. At his new school, Northvale Primary, he was a completely different boy, a loner who found it difficult to make friends and who lacked self-confidence and was totally unmotivated.

To make matters worse, Paul Denyer grew into a big lump of a lad, much taller and a lot fatter than the other kids. And instead of playing with the usual things that would occupy a boy of his age, he grew up fascinated with his collection of knives and clubs and home-made slingshot-guns that fired pebbles or ball bearings.

His murderous intentions started at an early age when he regularly dissected his sister's teddy bears with a homemade knife, and when he was 10, he stabbed the family kitten and hung it from a tree in the backyard. Later on, while working at what would be his last place of employment, he allegedly slaughtered and dismembered two goats in a paddock next door.

Just before his thirteenth birthday Paul Denyer was charged with stealing a car and was released with a warning. Two months later he was he was in trouble again and charged with making a false report to the fire brigade, theft and willful damage. At age 15, Denyer forced another boy to masturbate in front of some children and was charged with assault.