Edwards 'tried to minimise his criminal history'
The second wife of the Australian man accused of killing Ciara Glennon over two decades ago has testified that she “feared for her life” during the final year of their relationship.
The woman, whose identity cannot be revealed, said she kept a notebook detailing the bank transactions of Bradley Edwards, 50, as she was scared.
Edwards is on trial for the alleged murder of 27-year-old Ciara Glennon, whose family is from Westport, Co Mayo. He is also accused of murdering two other women: Jane Rimmer, 23, and Sarah Spiers, 18.
Ms Glennon was out celebrating St Patrick’s Day in Perth in 1997 when she disappeared. Edwards denies the murder of Ms Glennon, as well as the murders of Ms Spiers and Ms Rimmer.
It is believed the women were abducted or lured into a car and then killed in a series of gruesome incidents which took place in Western Australia in 1996 and 1997.
Ms Glennon’s body was discovered three weeks after it went missing and prosecutors are relying heavily on DNA evidence, including DNA allegedly located underneath her fingernails, in linking Mr Edwards to the incidents. His defence has claimed that the DNA evidence could have been contaminated due to less sophisticated storage methods in the 1990s.
Edwards’s second wife said he tried to “minimise” his criminal history when he admitted to attacking a social worker at a hospital in 1990, according to ABC.net.au.
He pleaded guilty to the violent assault in which he grabbed the woman from behind without warning, stuffed a cloth into her mouth to stop her calling out and dragged her backwards across her office before she kicked him and broke free.
Cable ties were later found in Edwards’s pocket.
Edwards was with his second wife for 18 years before they separated.
The woman said her marriage to Edwards deteriorated when she got “sick and tired of the lies”. By 2014 she said problems in the relationship were “starting to escalate”.
She began compiling handwritten records of bank statements in July 1996 as she feared for her life. It included details of withdrawals from the Bay View ATM.
Ms Glennon disappeared in the early hours of March 15, 1997, and was last seen around Bay View Terrace in Claremont.
An ex-girlfriend of Edwards’ earlier told the court their relationship ended around the time his third alleged victim, Ms Glennon, was found dead.
The 71-year-old former girlfriend, whose identity is suppressed, said she met Edwards while he was performing maintenance at her workplace over a number of years.
Their relationship deteriorated after a weekend at a motel in February 1997, she told the court.
When asked about what she was doing on the night of Ms Glennon’s disappearance, the ex-girlfriend could not say.
The trial continues.
