- 2 months ago
Operation Bastille follows the gripping investigation that exposed Stephen Michael Adams
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00:25I definitely live by a quote that I heard when I first started in police force.
00:30Crooks have to be lucky every day, we have to be lucky one day.
00:35An assault took place in West Perth.
00:38A male person threatened her with a handgun.
00:41She was sexually assaulted.
00:43The person we were looking for was already being referred to as the West Perth Rapist.
00:47We'd been looking for a ride of a black motorcycle.
00:50We had a chase, and he actually just went headfirst into a bus stop.
00:55Started to search him, and some weird stuff started to pop up.
00:59It made me go, something's very strange here.
01:02The search warrant we did at his address was on Christmas Eve.
01:06It was the Aladdin's cave.
01:09If somebody wanted to appear as a police officer, he had all those things ready to go.
01:13He had a compulsion to commit crimes.
01:23My name is Peter Marsh.
01:25I'm a detective sergeant, WA police.
01:28In 2012, I was at the sex assault squad.
01:33An assault took place in West Perth, where a 19-year-old girl was assaulted by a male who she
01:39described as threatening her with a handgun.
01:45West Perth is not far from King's Park.
01:50A lot of, I would say, corporate premises there.
01:56It's a fairly busy area during the day.
01:59It tends to be less populated at night time because of the businesses there.
02:04And that's when this assault happened.
02:11It was 8.30 on a Friday night.
02:16A 19-year-old female, an international student, became aware that a stranger was following her on Havelock Street.
02:27She was on her way to catch a bus around the corner on Ord Street.
02:31But as she turned right from Havelock to Ord, the stranger continued to follow her.
02:39He confronted her near the bus stop on Ord Street.
02:43And he lifted up his jumper, showed her what she described to be the butt of a handgun, told her
02:50that it was a robbery.
02:53The young lady was naturally paralysed with fear.
02:57Ord Street was deserted, no-one to help her, and a stranger pulling a gun on her.
03:04She tried to give him something, give him some cash, and he said, not here.
03:10And directed her to a business premises in Ord Street, to the back of the building.
03:20Had a path going down to the back.
03:23Some steps leading down to what was a sunken area.
03:27And it's within that area that she was sexually assaulted.
03:37Victim was very brave, put up a fight.
03:40She tried to scratch him, hurt him, hurt the guy.
03:43He threatened her another time.
03:46The assailant produced a large knife and threatened to slash the young lady unless she complied.
03:56After the assault, the offender searched the victim's bag, found her identification, told her not to go to police, and
04:03fled.
04:06She was able to get going from there.
04:10She alerted some cleaners that were cleaning some of the buildings there of an evening, and police were called.
04:19Our on-call team was contacted.
04:22Detective Sergeant Frank Glenn and Tony Guerra.
04:27They spoke with the victim and arranged for her to go to the Sex Assault Resource Centre,
04:34where she consented to undergoing a forensic examination.
04:44Frank and Tony spent the weekend doing the initial inquiries.
04:48I joined the team on Monday.
04:52It was really just doing the basics of door knocks and the gathering of CCTV.
05:03But it was all grainy.
05:04It was dark.
05:07And at night time, everything just looks the same.
05:11The best physical evidence we had was a DNA profile retrieved during the forensic examination of the victim.
05:19That was run through the database.
05:22However, there was no links to anyone that had offended previously and was on the DNA database.
05:32In a case like this, an offender without a criminal history is the hardest kind of crook to catch.
05:39So, you've got nothing really to go on at all?
05:43No, no, not at all.
05:45No.
05:53It was a Sunday.
05:55It really wasn't busy.
06:00I actually think the football was on in Subiaco.
06:04So, there was a lot of people not far away, but certainly not in the West Purse area.
06:13At 4.15pm, a 26-year-old female exited a bus in Ord Street, not far from the location of
06:21the first attack.
06:27She turned into Collins Street, and as she walked along, a stranger ran up from behind and confronted her.
06:35A male person has lifted up a hoodie and showed her a handgun and told her to walk under that
06:44area.
06:46If you look at the building, it has an undercover car park, and the young lady may have put two
06:52and two together.
06:53Because her assailant, under the pretense of a robbery, was trying to force her into a secluded area.
07:03The girl was very brave.
07:06She said no.
07:07She grabbed her bag and she threw it at him.
07:10And then she took off down the street running.
07:16And stopped to see whether he was still after her.
07:20And he was just standing there, dumbfounded that someone hadn't listened to him.
07:27She stopped the guy riding a pushbike and told him about what had occurred.
07:31Meanwhile, the offender had taken off.
07:41The offender took the victim's handbag with him.
07:44Perhaps as a trophy, but the most significant thing was the use of the firearm.
07:50We're not America, so we don't see a hell of a lot of firearms involved.
07:54We certainly weren't seeing it back in 2012.
07:56And so that was really what made us believe that the two incidents were linked.
08:07Once again, we undertook an extensive search of CCTV in the West Perth area.
08:15This time we were more lucky with our footage.
08:18We captured a view of a man who we believed to be our offender.
08:25He was walking quickly in a cap and shorts.
08:30A short time later, a separate camera captured the same man.
08:35He'd taken off his hoodie and was getting on a motorbike.
08:39And taking off down Emerald Terrace.
08:42I think Emerald Terrace is a one-way street, so we had to kind of U-turn it.
08:48He got away, but he didn't do a great job of taking off without a few stumbles on the way.
08:58I was tasked with identifying the motorbike.
09:03I spent many months trying to find out the make of the bike.
09:11I learnt the discreet differences between Yamaha and Honda and Kawasaki.
09:20There was a lot of back and forth with reps from all of those companies.
09:26Nothing.
09:27We didn't get anything from there.
09:51Did you have anything concrete come from the flyers at all?
09:56Nothing.
10:15Was this a big case at that time?
10:19It was.
10:19It had got a lot of media attention.
10:22The person we were looking for was already being referred to in the media as the West Perth Rapist.
10:31My name's Matt Daly.
10:322012, I was working at the Sex Assault Squad for the WA Police.
10:38So you had Frank Glynn, who was the detective sergeant, who I saw everything.
10:42He was a very clever man and a very good investigator.
10:47So a lot of what I did was just checking over things that had already been done and seeing whether
10:51anything had been missed.
10:54In truth, nothing had been missed.
10:57We had the offender's DNA, but without a link on the police database, we were unable to identify him.
11:04We knew he possessed a motorbike, but it was proving difficult to establish the make and model.
11:11Six months after the incidents, we were no closer to identifying the offender,
11:15and there was a certain amount of frustration in that.
11:19When you've got somebody running around who's been referred to as the West Perth Rapist and the serial offender,
11:24the community's got the right to be wanting a result on that job.
11:27Yeah.
11:31My name's Luke McCulloch.
11:33I was a police officer in 2012 at the Wembley Police Station over in Western Australia.
11:42On December 11th, 2012, I was on afternoon shift, so I would have started at 4pm.
11:51We had gone out on patrol at 5pm.
11:55I was driving west on Cambridge Street in Wembley.
12:00We'd just passed the BP station.
12:02It was 9.26pm.
12:04On the footpath on the left-hand side was a motorbike on the footpath.
12:11And I remember seeing that it had no headlights on, and it was moving quite slow.
12:19I said to Sergeant Anderson, do you want to stop that guy?
12:21He said, yeah, probably a good idea.
12:24When we turned the sirens and lights on to initiate a traffic stop,
12:29he completely stalled and stopped the motorbike.
12:37At that stage, it didn't look evasive.
12:41I got out of the car and I walked over to him.
12:44And I said, hey, mate, how are you?
12:45We're just doing a quick stop.
12:47What's going on with your motorbike?
12:52Why are you here?
12:53Why have you not got your lights on?
12:54Why are you not on the road?
12:59At that stage, he looked a little bit panicked and turned over to me.
13:03He said, oh, sorry, it's not working properly.
13:06The headlight isn't on.
13:08So I thought it would be safer to be on the footpath.
13:13But then he kept trying to start it again.
13:20At that stage, I said, don't worry about your motorbike.
13:22Can you pass me your driver's licence and we'll find out what's going on
13:25and maybe we can even give you a lift home.
13:29As I was asking for his driver's licence,
13:32he turned the motorbike back on,
13:35kicked it into gear,
13:37and took off.
13:43Raced back to the car,
13:45get into the car,
13:46and we started chasing this bike.
13:48We went down Cambridge Street
13:50and we turned left into a side street,
13:53heading towards Subiaco.
13:56Our lights were on.
13:58Sergeant Anderson was driving and I remember turning to him and saying,
14:02should we put the sirens on and should I call the chase on the radio?
14:06I think we were only going about 45km an hour, 50km an hour,
14:10because the motorbike quite literally couldn't pick up the speed, I don't think.
14:15Sergeant Anderson just said, oh, look, when he gets to a set of lights,
14:17if he is looking like he's going to blow the red, then we'll call the chase.
14:22Sure enough, the next left-hand turn went into Subiaco
14:25and there was a set of lights that were red
14:27and he went straight through them.
14:30So I advised our head control centre that we had a chase
14:35and as I was calling it,
14:38he tried to mount and curb.
14:39And the curb was one of those box-type curbs.
14:42The wheel of the tyre went up, it buckled straight away
14:45and he actually just went headfirst into a bus stop.
14:54Jumped out, he stood up as well, he had his helmet on at that stage
14:58and he decided to run.
15:00I chased him, knocked him over and we had him.
15:08I still didn't know why.
15:09I was like, what is this guy running from?
15:13Has he stolen the motorbike?
15:16Has he got stolen gear on him?
15:21From the point where he took his helmet off after the crash,
15:24he started to creep me out a bit more.
15:29He was just a weird cat.
15:33He seemed slimy, evasive.
15:38I was very distrusting at this stage.
15:44I was then able to discover his identity.
15:47He was 44-year-old Stephen Michael Adams.
15:50Yep, so that's definitely Stephen.
15:55His home address was a unit in the Perth suburb of Como.
16:00He was this jockey-like small man.
16:03I'm six foot six.
16:05Definitely looking at Stephen, I was looking down on him.
16:08Quite wiry in the face.
16:11Quite narrow and gaunt as well.
16:13A weird guy to be talking to.
16:18I was asking him why he ran.
16:21He said that the registration of the bike
16:24was not the registration plate that was on it
16:26and he'd switched the plates
16:28because the registration had expired.
16:31He was worried about insurance.
16:34Again, it just didn't all seem to add up.
16:38But at this point,
16:39he was making us get more and more suspicious of him.
16:44I started to search him
16:47and that's when some weird stuff started to pop up.
16:51On his person in his jacket,
16:53he had a can of pepper spray.
16:57He claimed that that was for his own protection.
17:00And then before I went any further,
17:02he did tell us that he had a needle on him
17:04at that point in his pants.
17:08The sensors definitely get heightened.
17:10Think about safety.
17:11So needle stick gloves came out.
17:14Where is the needle?
17:15He said it was in his pocket
17:16but it was under his outer pants
17:17so he had two sets of pants on.
17:20He brought that out eventually
17:21and it looked like an EpiPen.
17:23And I remember asking him what is this
17:25and he said it was for blood pressure.
17:27I didn't believe it.
17:29It just didn't seem genuine.
17:34At the same time,
17:35because it was of police chase
17:37and tackling him
17:39wasn't the easiest thing on his body either,
17:42ambulance were called
17:43and we were going to take him to hospital.
17:47He was claiming that he was okay
17:48but you'd rather just do a checkup over, obviously.
17:53We took him to hospital.
17:55I took that needle to one of the doctors there
17:58and I asked them what it was.
18:01We said it's definitely not for blood pressure.
18:02It's used by males for erectile dysfunction
18:07and it has an immediate effect.
18:11That was very strange.
18:16My police colleagues and I
18:17were keen to get Adams identifying particulars,
18:20his DNA, fingerprints and photos.
18:23We had authority to follow that course of action
18:26because he'd been driving recklessly
18:27and failed to stop.
18:29But there was something bigger at play.
18:32We couldn't quite work out what he was up to.
18:34We knew he'd done something wrong.
18:36We knew he was up to no good.
18:38Mainly because of the bizarre nature he had
18:42and the weird vibe that we were getting from him.
18:46Once he was cleared from the hospital,
18:48we got the identifying particulars kit
18:51to be able to take his DNA and his fingerprints.
18:55At that point, there was no further reason to hold him.
18:59We seized his motorbike, issued him with a court summons
19:02and let him go home.
19:04And then I wrote everything up in a running sheet.
19:08When you can't quite put your finger on it,
19:11you're better off recording it
19:12and then someone else hopefully will be able to do something with that.
19:16I finished work maybe one or two in the morning.
19:19Went home, went to sleep
19:21and then the next morning I woke up, my phone was ringing
19:23and it was Detective Sergeant Frank Glynn.
19:27Basically asked me about the motorbike stop
19:30that we had done the night before.
19:33I ran him through the story
19:36and I couldn't believe it
19:37but he essentially had told me
19:38that we might have caught the West Perth rapist.
19:55Frank was very methodical.
19:57Pretty dry person.
19:59He was not the chattiest person of the morning.
20:02But he would sit there of a morning
20:03and go through all incidents
20:05that had occurred overnight or the previous day.
20:08Frank would read it.
20:09He was that guy who actually read them.
20:16That morning a running sheet came through
20:20in relation to a black motorcycle
20:22having been involved in a pursuit in the Wembley area.
20:26We'd been looking for a ride of a black motorcycle
20:28because it was in Wembley
20:29which is not too far from West Perth
20:31where this offending had happened.
20:35I wouldn't say Frank straight away said
20:37that's our guy
20:38but it was something that was of interest.
20:48My desk was right alongside Frank
20:52He nudged me
20:53get a car
20:54we're going out to have a look at this bike
21:00so headed off to Leaderville
21:04got ourselves in there
21:07had a look at this bike
21:10I took a series of photographs of it
21:14and then I sent them back through to Pete Marsh
21:20yeah that's the bike that was in the holding yard
21:25there was a few things on it
21:26that matched what I was looking for
21:28that didn't seem to be identical
21:30on any Honda or Kawasaki or Yamaha
21:35it was an import bike
21:37Korean made I think it was
21:41once I knew what kind of bike it was
21:43I then did some research on that
21:45I had a name now
21:47because we had a suspect as such
21:51gentleman had purchased it from
21:53a bike shop in Wangara
21:56and had some repairs done in Palmyra
21:59a company that had a business in both locations
22:02I was really happy that that was our bike
22:06and that's what we were looking for
22:07all of this was in leading up to the DNA sample
22:12when Stephen Adams was apprehended for reckless driving
22:15and failing to stop
22:16we extracted his DNA
22:21now we could compare it to the DNA sample from March 2012
22:24when the West Perth rapist is struck for the first time
22:30one profile from March was the victim's DNA
22:33but the second profile could only have belonged to the offender
22:38it was put through the database
22:40and we hit the jackpot
22:42came up as a positive match for our first scene
22:50that's when things really started to ramp up
22:52and our interest in Stephen Michael Adams really sort of started kicking off
22:59the next step was to arrest him
23:01and execute a search warrant on his home in the suburb of Como
23:07we monitored Adams whilst conducting a thorough risk assessment
23:11and what we found is that he worked for the federal government
23:14in the department that is today called Home Affairs
23:20the office where Adams worked was on Wellington Street, West Perth
23:24only a short distance from where he defended
23:28it's likely he had surveilled the area
23:30and established the best exit routes to avoid detection on CCTV
23:35but the plan to lure a second victim into a car park
23:37was thwarted when she ran
23:39hence his hurried departure on the black motorbike
23:48as we monitored Adams
23:49we paid particular attention toward any signs of him becoming an increased flight risk
23:53as we considered he remained a likely danger to the community
23:58our boss, Detective Sergeant Frank Glynn
24:01reinforced that when it came to executing the warrant
24:04safety was our number one priority
24:06we were all very aware that Stephen Adams had shown two victims a firearm
24:10which they believed to be real
24:13we were aware of the potential for a firearm to be present
24:15when we executed the search warrant
24:17and were prepared for that risk
24:21the search warrant we did at his address was on Christmas Eve
24:26I was told that I was going to run the door
24:28or I was going to be in charge of doing the search warrant
24:31which was a pretty big deal at the time
24:33because it was probably the biggest job that I'd worked on
24:38the order to run the door came directly from Frank Glynn
24:42I know I felt proud to be asked to do it
24:44because he obviously thought that I was competent enough to do it
24:47I just remember thinking that I hope I didn't screw it up
25:00it was Christmas Eve 2012
25:05we end up arriving at about 6 o'clock in the morning
25:09he lived in Como
25:11in a set of apartments
25:13they had a kind of communal driveway
25:16that you'd just turn in and go into your carport
25:21his partner wasn't home
25:23he was home
25:26he was pretty keen to get us inside the house
25:30didn't want to talk about what we were there for outside of the house
25:35so once we were inside and told him what we were there for
25:38we placed him under arrest for aggravated sexual penetration without consent
25:42and a few other things
25:43and then the process of the search warrant went from there
25:48we found clothing
25:50and we found backpacks
25:53a lot of clothing and a lot of backpacks
25:57there were umpteen black backpacks there
26:01there seemed to be a lot of knives around the place
26:05pocket knives
26:07there were knives in the coffee table
26:11a couple in backpacks
26:13there was a knife in the car
26:17we found the erectile dysfunction
26:20medication
26:23we suspected this was the same type of needle kit
26:26found by Senior Constable Luke McCulloch
26:28after he caught up with Adams
26:29on the streets of Subiaco
26:33Adams' first sex assault victim
26:35did not recall Adams using a needle to inject himself
26:38on the night that he attacked her
26:41but that's not to say he wasn't preparing to use it for his next attack
26:47we labelled and bagged the needle
26:49along with lots of other evidence
26:52he just got to hear a lot of the time
26:54we'll be taking that
26:55we'll be taking that
26:56we'll be taking that
26:58our focus in the search warrant
27:00was to clearly uncover anything
27:02that might support the sex assault charges against Adams
27:05but we started to find disturbing evidence of offending
27:09which fell outside the orbit of our initial inquiry
27:16we found a big pile of passenger or Pax cards
27:19the kind that Adams would have seen in his job
27:22at what was then called the Department of Immigration and Citizenship
27:27they are cards that people fill out when travelling
27:30so there's some fairly significant detail on that
27:33we've all filled them out
27:35when we travel over to Bali or wherever else
27:37you fill out those cards with the little squares on them
27:43we didn't know why he had those things
27:45but there was a rating system which he'd put on those cards
27:49in relation to females that were passing through customs
27:52some of the cards would have comments on them
27:55about females appearance
27:58some of them were reasonably vulgar
28:00in the way they'd describe some of those women
28:02that had passed through customs when he'd been working
28:05so we seized those as well
28:09we couldn't help but wonder
28:11was Adams compiling a kind of dossier
28:13of potential victims for the future
28:17he totally abused the position of trust
28:19he'd been put in as a customs employee
28:23he'd obtained personal information from female travellers
28:26and kept records of those females
28:28likely for his personal gratification
28:31his partner had already left the house when we arrived
28:37they had a puppy and she'd taken the puppy out for a walk
28:40when she came back we spoke to her
28:42let her know what was going on
28:45we were in the process of executing the search warrant
28:49I think she was surprised as to what was going on
28:54she went off to a relative's house with the dog
28:59what was his demeanour through the whole process
29:01at first he was surprised
29:04but then he'd argue
29:05he did make it pretty clear that he thought we had the wrong man
29:08he's going to prove his innocence
29:12we knew we were on solid ground
29:14with the first sexual assault
29:17we had a DNA sample
29:19that gave us a link to the first victim
29:21but we didn't really have anything
29:23linking up to the second victim
29:27all of us had our heads around
29:29what we were looking for
29:32property items belonging to the second victim
29:36the second victim had very bravely
29:38thrown a handbag at her attacker
29:40and run for her life
29:43there was a phone inside the handbag as well
29:45but the phone had been turned off
29:47so we weren't able to track that
29:48because we'd tried to track it
29:52looking around Adam's apartment
29:53gave us the impression that he was a bit of a hoarder
29:57we were hoping
29:58he'd souvenired the second victim's handbag as well
30:00but unfortunately
30:02there was no evidence of that
30:05you never know what's interesting
30:06until it's interesting
30:09a significant find
30:10came in an upstairs room
30:12which Adams referred to as his junk room
30:15it was a receipt for a storage facility
30:17and it was in a name
30:19other than Adams
30:20at that stage that's all it was
30:22it was just a receipt for a storage facility
30:24and we thought
30:25why has he got this
30:26why is it stored in his junk room
30:29we need to look into this further
30:37there was plenty to do to get ready for the next search
30:40not even one of the hottest Christmas days on record
30:42was going to slow us down
30:45today Perth was the hottest major capital city in the world
30:49reaching a maximum of 39.6 degrees
30:52we've had some champagne
30:54and lots of goodies
30:57now we're going home to turn the aircon on
31:02we charged Adams the day before
31:04so he was safely locked away on remand
31:06and a few days later
31:07we had another search warrant ready to go
31:11so 28th of December 2012
31:14there was a search warrant that was executed at a storage facility
31:19the team cut off the padlock
31:22and inside the storage locker
31:24there was boxes of property
31:31immediately evident
31:32we could see a handbag
31:34and that was a very distinct handbag
31:38we found the handbag
31:39the purse
31:40the phone
31:43all there in that storage unit
31:45which linked him to both offences that he committed
31:58the storage unit
32:00the storage unit was really important for us
32:04he was remanded in custody
32:06based on the two principal charges
32:08the DNA he wasn't going to be able to explain away
32:12the handbag in his own premises
32:14he wasn't going to be able to explain that away
32:19he just kept trophies
32:22there was always the option of throwing it in the bin
32:25but he didn't
32:28so the storage unit was the Aladdin's cave
32:33thanks
32:35yeah so these are other property items
32:37that were found in the storage locker
32:41imitation firearm
32:44we believe that was the firearm
32:46that was used in the offending
32:47in West Perth
32:49there was a taser
32:52these are cable ties that were found in there
32:57handcuffs
33:00large knife
33:02another knife
33:04knuckle dusters
33:07this one was interesting
33:08that's a ballistic vest
33:11the community would have every right
33:13to feel a little frightened
33:14when they say
33:14these sort of items
33:15had been sitting in a storage locker
33:17in suburban Perth
33:20and he had access to them
33:23there was a
33:24Australian Federal Police
33:25shirt
33:28there was a
33:29what we refer to in policing
33:31as a rig belt
33:32with a holster
33:34there was a blue light
33:35that you can put on the roof
33:36of a police car
33:38there was some ammunition
33:39that was in there
33:43if somebody wanted to
33:44appear as a police officer
33:46he had all those things ready to go
33:49he also had his old ID
33:51as a police officer as well
33:52which had his photograph on there
33:55there's a
33:57AFP identification
33:58in the name of Constable Adams
34:01S.N. Adams
34:02this is Stephen Michael Adams
34:10when we went through
34:11the door
34:12and we did that initial search warrant
34:13we weren't aware
34:14that Stephen Adams
34:14was the next Federal Police Officer
34:16we found a beanie
34:18with an Australian Federal Police logo
34:20on it
34:20we found a jacket
34:21with an Australian Federal Police logo
34:22and a jumper
34:24Pete asked Mr Adams
34:25about those things
34:26at the time
34:26and he said that he bought them
34:28so he wasn't
34:28willing to give us
34:29that information
34:30that he was a former
34:31police officer at that time
34:37my colleagues and I
34:38held significant concerns
34:40regarding Adams' possession
34:41of an Australian Federal Police uniform
34:44considering these concerns
34:46we undertook a thorough investigation
34:47into reports of individuals
34:49impersonating police officers
34:52Adams' actions
34:53and the items in his possession
34:54heightened our apprehensions
34:56about his intentions
34:59anything that he would have needed
35:01to portray himself
35:02as a police officer in public
35:03he had it sitting in that storage locker
35:06there was a lot more to discover
35:07about Stephen Adams
35:09when he finished school in Perth
35:11he worked at a bank
35:12for a lengthy period
35:15then he moved to Canberra
35:17that's where he worked
35:18for the Federal Police
35:19for about four years
35:21he also worked for Australian Customs
35:23in the Northern Territory
35:25before returning to Perth
35:27the storage unit
35:28yielded information
35:29on a smorgasbord of criminality
35:33the storage facility
35:35that he'd rented
35:35it had been placed
35:37in a different name
35:37and it turned out
35:38that it was a neighbour of his
35:40from an apartment complex
35:41in Darwin
35:41where he'd been working
35:42for customs
35:43when this neighbour
35:44was out of the country
35:46Adams has gone
35:47and broken into his house
35:48and caused damage
35:51he sprayed barbecue sauce
35:53on this man's bed
35:56made a mess of the place
35:59cut cords to electrical appliances
36:01right up
36:01as short as they could go
36:04including the refrigerator
36:07and when he was interviewed
36:09Adams said
36:10yeah he knew how hot it was
36:11in Darwin that time of year
36:12and the food in the fridge
36:13would spoil
36:14and make his apartment stink
36:17he was just doing things
36:18because he wanted
36:19to annoy this guy
36:22he put a small
36:23Scarface figurine
36:25in a microwave
36:25and melted it
36:27he also got the guy's car
36:29and drove it 100 metres away
36:30from the house
36:31as he said
36:32just to annoy him
36:32when we spoke to the neighbour
36:35the thing that freaked him out
36:36the most
36:36was the figurine
36:37that was melted
36:38in the microwave
36:41he found that
36:41of all things
36:42to be quite frightening
36:43it was so unusual
36:44yeah
36:47we also uncovered evidence
36:48of financial crimes
36:49committed by Stephen Adams
36:51there was credit card frauds
36:53that he was getting up to
36:55he was using some of the documentation
36:57from his employment
36:58to pursue credit card applications
37:00and he was able to use credit cards
37:03to live a bit of a champagne lifestyle
37:05for a while
37:06the skills that he learnt
37:08from working in the banking sector
37:09he was able to use those skills
37:11he sort of knew
37:13some of the ways
37:14that he could get away with things
37:17being in that coma area
37:18he had identified
37:20some properties
37:20that were up for sale
37:21and residents weren't in there
37:24and so using the knowledge
37:25that he had applied
37:26for credit cards
37:28gave the address
37:29of a place down the road
37:31from where he was living
37:31that nobody was at
37:33and so he could check the mailbox
37:35and get that documentation there
37:37without having it
37:38sent to his own address
37:43Matt and I interviewed Adams
37:44a number of times
37:45as we uncovered
37:47many layers
37:48of his offending
37:49I've got to say
37:50he was
37:52pretty helpful
37:53with the fraud matters
37:55there was a lot of boasting
37:56probably to show us
37:58how smart he was
38:00this envelope here
38:01contains customs
38:03and I suppose
38:05looking back on it
38:05we fed that ego
38:06he was digging himself
38:08further into a hole
38:09as far as we were concerned
38:15he was somebody
38:16that by his own admission
38:17he had a compulsion
38:18to commit crimes
38:22most sex offenders
38:23will stay in the sex offence lane
38:24most financial crime
38:26will stay in the financial crime lane
38:27it's not often
38:29that the two will intertwine
38:30but in this case it did
38:32we found stuff in books
38:34where he'd write down
38:35sort of these fantasy thoughts
38:36if you like
38:37about criminal acts
38:38that he might want to have done
38:40in the notes
38:41that we found
38:42in that storage locker
38:43one of them spoke to
38:44going in
38:45and robbing a brothel
38:46by spraying everybody
38:47with pepper spray
38:50maybe one day
38:51he would have done that
38:52had he not been caught
38:56throughout the interview process
38:58Adams made no admissions
38:59about his sexual offending
39:00and wanted to make it very clear
39:02his partner had no knowledge
39:03of any of his offending
39:05she believed a lot
39:06of what he was saying
39:07and didn't want to believe
39:08that he was a sex offender
39:10I don't think she probed
39:12his version of events
39:14too much
39:14she just wanted to believe
39:16that this person
39:17that she'd spent
39:17a number of years with
39:18couldn't have done
39:19these horrible things
39:20that he was being accused of
39:22you can't blame her for that
39:25she was a victim
39:25in all of this too
39:27she was living with this man
39:28who was living a split life
39:30he was very much
39:31the grey man
39:32I mean people just didn't
39:33picket of him
39:36he was able to move around
39:38through his work
39:39through his everyday life
39:40without really sticking out
39:41and you know
39:42there's nothing really about him
39:43in my opinion
39:44that was remarkable
39:45and that probably helped him
39:50now that Stephen Adams' crimes
39:52had been exposed
39:53and he was in custody
39:54he was not going to be getting
39:55any help from us
39:57he'd betrayed everyone around him
39:59and it is considered likely
40:01he would have kept offending
40:03quite possibly
40:04on the same night
40:05he ran from police
40:06in Subiaco
40:07prosecutors would be requesting
40:09the court impose
40:10a lengthy term of imprisonment
40:33we never really got an inkling
40:35that he was going to plead guilty
40:37to the sex offences
40:38until he did
40:38so that took everybody by surprise
40:41because he'd been so adamant
40:42the whole way through
40:43that it wasn't him
40:45of course behind closed doors
40:47with his psychologist
40:48that's where he was making
40:49admissions to
40:50why he offended
40:52Adams' legal counsel
40:54presented Justice Ralph Simmons
40:55with an array
40:56of mitigating circumstances
40:57inclusive of a psychological report
41:00to explain Adams' behaviour
41:01and they presented an argument
41:03as to why Adams
41:04should be given a reduction
41:05in his sentence
41:05they came up with some stuff
41:07about he was affected
41:08by viewing pornography
41:11in the workplace
41:11and that added to his compulsion
41:14to commit the types of crime
41:15that he did
41:18I reserve judgment
41:19on that particular line of defence
41:22I don't know too much
41:23about those conversations
41:24that happen
41:25that's between him
41:25and the court-appointed psychologists
41:39In a pre-sentence hearing yesterday
41:41defence lawyer Richard Lawson
41:43told the court
41:44Adams blamed his offending
41:46on seduction rape
41:47after being forced
41:48to watch pornography
41:49while he worked
41:50as a customs officer
41:52Today
41:53Justice Simmons
41:54told Adams
41:55he believed
41:55he was reinforced
41:56by his exposure
41:57to pornography
41:58but that it did not
41:59reduce his culpability
42:02Adams cried
42:03as Justice Simmons
42:04detailed
42:05the night
42:05he sexually assaulted
42:06a 19-year-old
42:08Finnish visitor
42:08in West Perth
42:09with Justice Simmons
42:11describing him
42:11as an intense
42:12sex offender
42:15Today
42:15he was sentenced
42:16to 10 years
42:17behind bars
42:18with a chance
42:19of parole
42:19after 8
42:22Frank
42:23Matt
42:23and I
42:24went to the sentencing
42:25you got a decent
42:26whack of time
42:27for it
42:28it's never enough
42:29or you think
42:29it's never enough
42:31but hopefully
42:32he's changed his ways
42:33and changed his life
42:41I'm glad
42:42for the community
42:43of Western Australia
42:43that we were able
42:44to get him
42:45when we did
42:45and ensure
42:46that justice
42:47was done
42:47in the correct manner
42:54as much as
42:54we have technology
42:56I don't think
42:56you'll ever replace
42:57that boots on the ground
42:58policing approach
43:01the fact that
43:01these guys
43:02were out on patrol
43:04they saw something
43:05that didn't look right
43:08and they responded
43:09to that thing
43:09that didn't look right
43:13there was a 100%
43:14a stroke of luck
43:15to it
43:16how we found him
43:17how we came across him
43:19I definitely lived by
43:21a quote that I heard
43:22when I first started
43:23in the police force
43:23whereby
43:24crooks have to be lucky
43:25every day
43:26we have to be lucky
43:26one day
43:29had something small
43:31changed in terms
43:31of him being smart enough
43:32at the traffic stop
43:33to provide us
43:34with a driver's licence
43:35we work out
43:36that his registration
43:37was out
43:38that would have been
43:38the end of it
43:40maybe giving him
43:41a ticket for that
43:41maybe a summons
43:42but that's probably
43:44all that would have
43:44happened
43:47the most memorable
43:48part I suppose
43:48was that needle
43:49that I found
43:51how that just
43:52made the hair
43:53on the back of my neck
43:54sort of stand up
43:56especially when I
43:57found out from the
43:57doctor what it
43:58actually was
43:59yeah
44:03that report
44:04that we put in
44:04for Detective Sergeant
44:05McGlynn
44:06to access that
44:07and notice a motorbike
44:08that was amazing
44:12it's a fantastic result
44:14and the thing
44:15I liked about it
44:15was just having
44:16competent people
44:17that were all invested
44:18in doing the same thing
44:20it introduced me
44:21into a different way
44:22of policing
44:24I enjoy that detail
44:25and that
44:26the support
44:27from my teammates
44:28around me
44:32when we catch up
44:33which we do
44:34probably not as
44:35regularly as I'd like
44:35but we always do
44:36talk about this job
44:37and our memories of it
44:39it meant something
44:40to us
44:41not to say that
44:41other jobs don't
44:42but because we were
44:43working on this
44:44for so long
44:44we lived and breathed it
44:49consider myself
44:49very lucky
44:50to have worked
44:51under Frank
44:52because he'd been
44:53with Sex Assault Squad
44:54from near to its inception
44:56so he's not just
44:57a very good leader
44:58a very good detective
44:58he was a very good
44:59teacher as well
45:00he held you to account
45:02when you didn't
45:02do things correctly
45:03but he also
45:04celebrated when you did
45:08Frank was just
45:09an amazing mentor
45:13Frank was a fantastic guy
45:15he was
45:15reminds me very much
45:16of my dad
45:18very fond of him
45:20I wish he was still
45:21with us
45:23yeah
45:25he was a great guy
45:25thank you
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