Simon Hennessey, jailed as a teenager for brutal killing of his elderly aunt, arrested in Queensland resort over credit-card fraud
A fugitive killer who mutilated his aunt as a teenager and later escaped from jail has been recaptured in Australia, 15 years after going on the run.
Simon Hennessey walked out of Leyhill open prison, Gloucestershire, in December 1998 having served 20 years of a life sentence for stabbing 72-year-old Mary Webber 70 times in a frenzied attack at her Plymouth home. Hennessey admitted killing his aunt in 1978, but pleaded mental illness, and was jailed for life in the same year. He escaped several prisons before disappearing 15 years ago.
Police in Australia confirmed that they had charged Hennessey, now 49, with a series of fraud offences. A spokeswoman for Queensland police said he had been arrested earlier this month near the Sunshine Coast town of Maroochydore. He appeared before magistrates on 17 June and is in custody pending his next hearing in July. "There is not much more we can say because of the court situation but we are aware that he is a wanted criminal in the UK," she said.
His arrest is understood to be related to a sophisticated credit-card scam running to tens of thousands of Australian dollars. He could face a lengthy prison sentence if convicted in an Australian court, but Avon and Somerset police have already contacted the authorities there to discuss his extradition .
The town where Hennessey was held is a well developed seaside resort popular with tourists, 62 miles north of Brisbane and hosts an annual surf festival.
Hennessey is understood to have given a false name when he was approached by police, and initially claimed he was from New Zealand. According to Australian media, he appeared in local courts several times under that identity before police realised he was an escaped killer.
In Plymouth, where Hennessey is originally from, his local newspaper carried a lengthy article on his arrest. The Plymouth Herald detailed Hennessey's alleged fraud stating he had set up false companies to extract credit card details. He is then said to have used a "skimming machine" to withdraw tens of thousands of dollars from victims' accounts.
"They investigated who their mystery prisoner was, and were stunned to discover it was Simon Hennessey. More investigations revealed that Hennessey had been allegedly living from the proceeds of frauds under false identities for years."
Daren Edwards, Sunshine Coast prosecutor, told the Courier-Mail in Queensland: "He had not been seen or heard of until he was picked up. We knew there was more to him and it appears he has used several identities. We believe he has moved between Thailand, New Zealand and Australia."