Five time nominated BEST BRITISH TRUE-CRIME PODCAST at the True Crime Awards, Independent Podcast Award and The British Podcast Awards, and voted 4th Best True-Crime Podcast by This Week, iTunes Top 25 Podcast, Podcast Magazine's Hot 50, The Telegraph's Top 5, Crime & Investigation Top 20 True-Crime Podcasts, also seen on BBC Radio, Sky News, The Guardian and TalkRadio's Podcast of the Week.
EPISODE THREE HUNDRED AND THIRTY-THREE:
This is Part One of Two of ‘The Beast of Belvedere’ by Murder Mile UK True Crime. From April 1983 to July 1984, a series of sadistic sex attacks were perpetrated on women and young girls on trains or near train stations on three routes from Central London to the South-East of England and Kent, they were the Bexleyheath Line, the North Kent Line and the Dartford Loop. This prolific serial rapist never disguised his face, he attacked in broad daylight, and he stuck to the areas he knew so well. But who was he?
SOURCES: a selection sourced from various archives:
MUSIC:
UNEDITED TRANSCRIPT: How did a prolific serial rapist evade capture for so long? Find out on Murder Mile. Today, I’m back at Charing Cross station, off The Strand, WC2; the same street as the last confirmed sighting of the Savaged Prince, just to the side of where the first possible victim of the Blackout Ripper said farewell to her pal, the station where German tourist Heidi Mnilk met her death as confessed to by Patrick MacKay, and where a bag of laundry in left luggage bled red - coming soon to Murder Mile. We don’t appreciate how clean and safe our modern trains are; being heated, well-lit and ventilated open-carriages with every angle covered by cameras and communication cords for our safety. I mean, yes, the standard commute is a horrific assault on the senses as the tone deaf play drum n bass via an annoyingly tinny speaker, the stench of ‘the great unwashed’ smells like a flatulent wet dog soaked in puke, every surface is spattered with an ominous sticky residue from any number of foods or orifices, and even a 10 minute journey requires you to be scrubbed with hot bleach, but it was once a lot worse. The design and layout of the train carriages we have to today are as a direct result of the terrifying and deadly incidents inflicted on the fellow passengers in our past, especially on the three train lines covering this network; the North Kent Line, the Bexleyheath Line and the dreaded Dartford Loop. As a busy series of train lines from Central London through the commuter belt of South-East London and into Kent, the Dartford Loop was built in 1866 to alleviate congestion as the city expanded, and it remains a vital part of this link today. Sadly, with so many failings in its design, it became synonymous with crime, and from April 1983 to July 1984, a series of sadistic sex attacks on women and young girls. This cowardly rapist would be nicknamed ‘The Beast of Belvedere’. But who was he? My name is Michael, I am your tour guide, and this is Murder Mile. Episode 333: ‘The Beast of Belvedere’ – Part One of Two. During the height of The Beast’s spree of attacks on lone women across the network, Yvonne Roberts, a journalist working for the Evening Standard published an article titled ‘if only men knew how it felt’. Ringing true with many lone female commuters, she wrote: “a woman sits in the middle of two seats on the Charing Cross to Dartford train, her bag clutched to her like a bullet proof shield”, her only real protection being sat opposite a strange man in a cramped and dimly-lit compartment of just six seats. “It is mid afternoon on a Monday. The man who attacked or raped 17 women on or near this line… has mentally mugged every woman traveller by robbing her of her sense of ease. Women, of course, are accustomed to feeling uncomfortable and just plain frightened on public transport”, as in 1982, the year before, there were 570 assaults and 3 rapes on the networks line in these closed carriages. In 1983, a government white paper on ‘Public Safety on London Transport’ was published, but with 97 of the 106 witnesses who gave evidence being men, its recommendations were less about a woman’s right to be safe, and more about the impact on cost and profitability. By May 1983, the Greater London Council had recommended the installation of CCTV cameras in just 33 of its 247 tube stations, with some cameras (providing grainy and unclear footage) only available in the larger train terminuses. It was a safety system implemented by men who didn’t understand a woman’s plight. Yvonne Roberts continued “…on the Dartford train, even the open carriage has eight communication cords”, a simple pull cord which alerts the driver to an incident (and the conductor, if the train has one, which many don’t). “The police have been surprised that none of the woman attacked tried to use them”, but as she rightly noted, “how can they when, with a knee to their throat or back, they are out of reach?”. Yet, it wasn’t just the train that was a woman’s greatest danger, but the station and her walk home. Unlike many serial rapists, ‘The Beast of Belvedere’ didn’t stick to a single train, time or route, as being fuelled by his base desires, he hunted for lone and vulnerable women; day and night, on quiet and busy trains, and not just across a single trainline, but three, as these antiquated rolling stocks trundled through tiny towns and suburban villages, many of which had few street lights and a lone constable. The Dartford Loop began at Charing Cross, Waterloo East or London Bridge, and called at Hither Green, Lee, Mottingham, New Eltham, Sidcup, Albany Park, Bexley and Crayford. The Bexleyheath Line called at Lewisham, Blackheath, Kidbrooke, Eltham, Falconwood, Welling, Bexleyheath and Barnehurst. The North Kent at Lewisham, Blackheath, Charlton, Woolwich, Arsenal, Abbey Wood, Belvedere, Erith and Slade Green. And with all lines terminating at Dartford, for many, these names may feel as unfamiliar as a foreign land, far from where you feel safe, but to this serial rapist, it was as comfortable as home. Saturday the 23rd of April 1983 was said to be the first attack in this 15-month spree. That evening, at roughly 9:30pm, with a slight chill in the air, the streets were quiet and secluded. On Lingfield Crescent was Falconwood station, a tiny brick-built building in a small suburban village on the Bexleyheath Line, illuminated by a single lamp which cast an ominous orange glow. To the east was the Falconwood housing estate, but in all other directions were vast expanses of green; like Oxleas Wood, Avery Hill, Eltham Park, Shepherdleas Park, and just above the railway line, Falconwood Field. The day was uneventful for most; snooker player Cliff Thorburn was celebrating a perfect 147 break, Spandau Ballet's pop song ‘True’ was heading to #1, and tests had proven Hitler's diaries to be fake. One hour after dusk, a 16 year-old girl, her name rightly left anonymous, entered Falconwood station. With the station master off-duty, the ticket office closed and porters only at larger terminuses, she walked left along the platform and sat on a bench, waiting a few minutes for the train to Blackheath. It was dark, cold, wreathed in shadows, and the only other passenger waiting was a man. As she sat silently, he slowly crept nearer. Standing directly behind her, he stared, breathing deep, then pounced. With one hand firmly clasped over her mouth to stop her screaming, he hissed “don’t make a noise, or I will put this knife into your neck”, as the sharp pinch of small blade drew a few drops of her blood. She froze in fear, terrified, her limbs barely mobile, as with her fate in his hands, he forced her off the end of the platform, down a slope onto the side of the rails, and under a bridge at the Rochester Way. On a grass bank, he made her lie down. He asked “what’s your age?”, but she was too afraid to say. He asked “are you a virgin?”, of which any answer risked horrific ramifications for this petrified girl, so saying “yes, I am”, he glared at her and barked ”no, you’re not, you’re a whore”. Ripping off her tights with force and punching her head to keep her silent, it was as her train pulled away that he raped her. Minutes later, he fled. She was so traumatised, even though he didn’t wear a disguise, her description of him was vague, being average height, build and look. There were no witnesses, no suspects, and as an era where rapes weren’t treated seriously and DNA was a pipe-dream, there was no crime scene. The investigation was short and perfunctory, but several details were clear; she didn’t know him, he knew the area well, and although this was the first attack in his spree, she clearly wasn’t his first victim. A month later, he attacked again. On Thursday 19th of May 1983, four miles north-east of Falconwood station and just shy of Erith station on the North Kent Line, a 31-year-old nurse was walking home from her shift at the Erith and District Hospital on Park Crescent. It was 2:55pm, broad daylight, and the school bells were about to sound. As a cut-through between Bexley Road to Fraser Road, known by locals, Birch Walk is a tight secluded alley way with an industrial area to the left, a road passing nearby and a thin wooded area to the right. Walking down Birch Walk, she later told the Police that she noticed a man, “after I walked a short way, something made me look back”, as she realised he was the same man who had passed her moments before. He was walking behind her, silently, quickly and with a definite purpose, she said “I remember the sound of a squeaking shoe” drawing closer. And then, as was his method, he silenced her mouth with his palm, he placed a short sharp blade to her throat, he barked “if you make a sound, I will kill you”, and having dragged her into the nearest bushes, as cars passed within ear shot, he raped her. Giving a fuller description, she told Police, he was “25 to 30, tall being 5 foot 11, lean and slim, with brown fair hair and brown eyes, and was unshaven”, and although a photofit was compiled, he didn’t match any known attackers, and it was uncertain if he was the same man as the Falconwood rapist. And yet, Birch Walk would have an ominous significance for his victims… …and ‘The Beast of Belvedere’. In those early months, the police had no idea that the first two attacks were connected, as he changed his days, times, locations, and attacked not just in or near train stations, but on the trains themselves. On Monday 6th of June 1983, just two weeks after his last attack, a 20-year-old woman had boarded a North Kent train at Dartford to see her mother who lived in Erith, not far from Birch Walk. Again, he wore no disguise. Again, he gagged her and threatened her with a small blade similar to a potato knife. But having boarded the train as it departed the Dartford station, and chosen this closed compartment of a smoking carriage where only one of the six seats were occupied by a lone woman, once inside, she couldn’t flee her attacker – as he pushed her down into the seat, and groped her breasts – as with the only exit being the door to the platform, if she screamed, no-one could come to her aid until the train stopped. But she did… and although he was strong, she kept fighting him off, shouting, kicking and punching until the train arrived at Erith, and before it had come to a stop, he flung open the door, and fled fast. With her description similar to the rape in Birch Walk, police knew they had a serial attacker in their midst, but a detail didn’t make sense; the train from Dartford to Erith took just five minutes, so either he was so stupid he didn’t realise, or (as detectives suspected) he knew the area exceptionally well. The carriages used were Bulleid & Maunsell BR Mark 1s, the same coaches where German tourist Heidi Mnilk was murdered a decade earlier in a suspected failed rape which resulted in her attacker (said to be Patrick MacKay) throwing her body from the train, which were infamously dubbed as ‘rape traps’. By the 80s, the Dartford Loop, Bexleyheath and North Kent lines were so notorious, many commuters avoided them, with the worst stations said to be Barnehurst, Bexleyheath, Welling and Falconwood. Even the South East Rail manager, Michael Woods said “I’m too scared to ride in them. I’d be happier in an open coach than risk being caught in one where I couldn’t get out”, and in 1987, with the Sunday Mirror stating “callously, British Rail refuses to scrap 63 single compartment carriages on South East routes, even though they have been condemned as hunting grounds for rapists and muggers”. Being described as “places of dread for lone women”, it would take a brutal murder for change to happen. On the 23rd of March 1988, 26-year-old Deborah Linsley boarded the 2:16pm train from Petts Wood in Kent to London Victoria. Traveling in a closed six-seater compartment, although 70 people were on the train, no-one could come to her aid as fighting off a potential rapist who was “scruffy, short, stocky, with dirty blond hair", he brutally stabbed her to death, and fled, as the train pulled into Penge East. It remains unsolved to this day, but it wasn’t ‘The Beast of Belvedere’, we know that for certain… …yet almost being caught didn’t stop this serial rapist from attacking again. On Tuesday 2nd of August 1983, two months after his last attack, a 25 year-old woman boarded a train at Charing Cross station, heading to Mottingham on the Dartford Loop. As it arrived at London Bridge, a man walked the platform, peering into every closed compartment, and as it pulled away, he boarded. In this six-seat closed compartment, he sat opposite her with no-one either side, and again, as was his method, he muffled her mouth, put a small blade to her neck, and hissed “I’m going to have some fun with you”, and as she sat frozen in fear, for the next five minutes, he kissed her and groped her breasts. The next stop was Hither Green, and with a few commuters on the platform, rather than running, risking being caught, he ordered her “kiss me, pretend we’re a courting couple”, and she obeyed. It was just a two-minute journey to the next stop, but during it, he raped her, and at Lee station, he fled. That was his fourth confirmed attack in as many months, and even though he never hid his face, he brazenly struck on busy trains in the day, and clearly knew the train routes and timetables, another detail stood out. It was only a 2 minute journey from Hither Green to Lee when he raped her, and although he’d ejaculated, they couldn’t accurately determine his blood group as he secreted no sperm. So who was he, as at that point, he was a mystery? A special rape squad was established at Belvedere Police station under Detective Superintendent Colin Hawkins, with a team of 50 detectives dedicated to hunting ‘the Beast of Belvedere’. They knew his face, his method, and the four-square miles he stalked his prey, and although well versed in tracking all kinds of criminals, a serial rapist was a different proposition, as too often, the victims just vanish. DS Hawkins told the press: “we have heard of woman being raped, but we have no firm information. The embarrassment and even shame can be shattering to a victim. They want to get home, fling off their clothes and bathe away the ‘dirt’ many of them feel. This destroys important forensic evidence which could be vital to the investigation and give an important lead to the rapist. We do not want another victim, but if it does happen, we urge them to come to us first”. And although they knew that a police officer was likely to be the last person a victim of sexual assault would seek out, “every care will be given and the victim helped by sympathetic and experienced police woman and doctors”. It was one of London’s biggest manhunts, it had to be, as with his attacks increasing in frequency, they were also becoming more violent, as DS Hawkins stated “he has attacked victims with a bottle causing head wounds, another had a broken jaw, and another was struck several times with a lump of wood. The man is strong, fit, a fast runner, and is believed to do heavy manual work”, but except for a brief description - late 20s, tall, slim, with brown fair hair, brown eyes, a toothy gap and an odd smell – he didn’t match any known rapist on the police’s database… and his spree showed no signs of ceasing. Wednesday the 7th of September 1983, one month after the last attack, he struck again. A 24-year-old woman sat alone in a six-seat closed carriage at Dartford station waiting for the 7:56pm train to depart for Charing Cross. She was alone, and the only way to exit the carriage was the door to the platform, but as the guard’s whistle blew to order the train to depart, a man jumped on board. Having perfected his method by picking a pretty young woman, slight and vulnerable, sat alone in a carriage from where she couldn’t get help even if she screamed and couldn’t escape, as the train left the station, he muffled her, stuck a knife to her neck, and hissed “shut up and you will be alright”, and remaining unseen until Abbey Wood station, he sexually assaulted her for the full 13 minute journey. Immediately, she alerted the Police, and with the compartment well lit, she built on his description; “26-ish, slim build, hair parted left to right, long pointed nose, a gold stud earing, a brown crew neck jumper, a red checked shirt, blue jeans and white trainers”, with a toothy grin and he smelled stale. In September 1983, the detectives at Belvedere, in co-ordination with the British Transport Police put up posters across the London, Kent and South-East rail networks featuring an updated photofit of ‘The Beast’. It was a simple ploy to embed his likeness into the eyes of any past or possible future victims… …and it worked. On Wednesday the 28th of September 1983, three weeks after his last attack, he struck again. A 36-year-old dental nurse, possibly leaving the Erith and District Hospital just as the 31-year-old nurse had done who he had attacked just four months before, being just 6:50pm and still daylight, she too used the short but slightly wooded cut-through at Birch Walk to make her way to Erith station. She told detectives “as soon as I saw him, I recognised him. I had a feeling that this was the same man that raped a nurse in Birch Walk earlier this year”, but with nowhere to run except to either end of this isolated alley, before she could, he grabbed her, whispered “don’t scream, I won’t hurt you. I only want to look at you”, and pushed her to the floor, forced her legs apart, and he indecently assaulted her. Barely minutes later, he fled, and with the nurse screaming loud, she was found by two women. The posters made women aware, only if they had seen them… …but his next victim had not. Friday the 14th of October 1983, two weeks after his last attack, was the start of half term. Next to Barnehurst train station on the Bexleyheath Line, just off Erith Road and a mile south of Birch Walk stood Bursted Woods, 12 hectares of untouched woodland with heavy foliage and dense bushes. At roughly 5pm, his youngest victim, a 14-year-old girl was walking her dog, as she usually did, not far from her home. It was daylight and other walkers were in ear-shot. As her dog ran ahead, possibly chasing a squirrel, as a man passed her, before she knew she was in any danger, as was his method; he muffled her mouth, put a blade to her neck, and said “don’t make any noise and I won’t hurt you”. In panic, she pushed his hand away, screaming. Grabbing her, he spat “make a move again and you’re dead”. But as she struggled to break free of his grip, he punched her hard in the face, knocking her down, and although he lifted her skirt, groping her genitals, he repeatedly tried to rape her, but failed. His description matched ‘The Beast of Belvedere’ with the girl adding that he had “a local accent”. The force he had used showed an escalation in his desperation, as Police feared “he may get more violent unless he is caught soon”. Even he would later say of this sexual assault, “I feel very distressed about what I have done to this girl. I know it should not have happened to any woman of any age, but to do it to a child is unforgiveable”. Yet, it didn’t stop his attacks on lone women, traumatising them forever. But was this him? Compiling the four photofits of the rapist seen attacking women in or near to stations across the three lines, as well as on the trains, the Daily Mirror queried “were four rapists on the loose”, as ‘The Beast’ was scruffy, tall, fair-haired and local with a gap tooth, but the others were short, wore glasses, had beady eyes and a heavily pockmarked face, not unlike the man seen leaving Heidi Mnilk’s carriage. So far, detectives could attribute him to the attack on a 16 year old in Falconwood, a 30 year old and a 36-year-old in Birch Walk, a 20-year-old and a 24-year-old on the Dartford train, a 25 year-old on a train near Mottingham, and now, a 14-year-old schoolgirl at Bursted Woods. But a man with a similar description, in the same timeframe and within those four square miles, had raped a 20-year-old at Foots Cray Meadows and a 16-year-old in Abbey Wood, with more in Albany Park and Lesness Woods. But was this him, or someone similar? One attack not attributed to ‘The Beast of Belvedere’ by himself was on Monday the 7th of November 1983, three weeks after his last, as a 23-year-old woman boarded the 10:32am to Dartford at Waterloo East. Again, he jumped into her empty carriage as it was departing, he sexually assaulted her, hopped off just minutes later at London Bridge, but this time, her “early 20s, scruffy and gap-toothed” attacker was said to have “sandy or gingery coloured hair”, and – for the first time ever – he stole her handbag. Had he started taking souvenirs, or had he committed so many attacks that he couldn’t recall them? The detectives were stuck and the investigation was slowly unravelling… …but they had already unearthed the biggest clue in their hunt for this serial rapist. On Wednesday the 6th of July 1983, in Lesnes Abbey Wood, 88 hectares of ancient woodland between Abbey Wood and Barnehurst stations near the town of Belvedere, a 16 year old girl was raped. Just a month later, on Thursday the 18th of August, again in broad daylight, a 30-year-old mother was raped in front of her 3-year-old son. Threatened with a knife, she was told he’d be stabbed if she screamed. Both attacks happened just 100 yards apart. And then, just after midnight on Tuesday 30th of August, two dog walkers heard a woman’s screams, their torches shined upon a man as he fled, and although the victim was never found, police flooded the area with more than 100 officers and sniffer dogs. Their plan was to flush him out, but he had already vanished. (End) PC Clifford Thomas was just a regular constable with the Belvedere police force assigned to search the woods armed with nothing but a truncheon and a torch, when he made a startling discovery. Under foot, as his heavy boots stood on a thick brush of holly leaves, something metal clinked underneath. The scene was fresh, having been vacated recently and used often, as with a sheet of corrugated iron covering the hole, when removed, it led to self-dug tunnel, 15 foot long by 3 foot wide. Said to be a “military style hideout”, the rapist had used it as he had lain in wait for his victims, hidden from view. Inside was everything a patient yet desperate attacker needed in his hunt for another woman to rape; a candle, a brush, a mug, tea bags, a jar of sugar, a stash of food, spare clothing, an air freshener, and a single mattress covered in polythene, where he had slept, and possibly attacked several victims. Police admitted it was luck that they had found it, yet being littered with empty beer cans and cigarette butts, as well as a blouse, stockings and knickers, forensic scientists could potentially identify him. It was an unnerving insight into the warped mind of this serial rapist, but it wasn’t his only hideout. A day later, over the road and 100 yards away, a second bunker was found. It was smaller, but given its position, detectives believed this was where he would run after his attacks, to flee from any witnesses, to hide from the police, but – as a sexual thrill - to spy with glee as his victims panicked and screamed. Detective Inspector Geoff Cooper stated “the man we are looking for is a danger to the public. We are very, very concerned”, and with the surrounding neighbourhood rightly terrified, everyone was on the look out for ‘The Beast of Belvedere’. But is this how a prolific serial rapist evaded capture for so long? Part two and the concluding part of ‘The Beast of Belvedere’ continues next week. The Murder Mile UK True Crime Podcast has been researched using the original declassified police investigation files, court records, press reports and as many authentic sources as possible, which are freely available in the public domain, including eye-witness testimony, confessions, autopsy reports, first-hand accounts and independent investigation, where possible. But these documents are only as accurate as those recounting them and recording them, and are always incomplete or full of opinion rather than fact, therefore mistakes and misrepresentations can be made. As stated at the beginning of each episode (and as is clear by the way it is presented) Murder Mile UK True Crime Podcast is a 'dramatisation' of the events and not a documentary, therefore a certain amount of dramatic licence, selective characterisation and story-telling (within logical reason and based on extensive research) has been taken to create a fuller picture. It is not a full and complete representation of the case, the people or the investigation, and therefore should not be taken as such. It is also often (for the sake of clarity, speed and the drama) presented from a single person's perspective, usually (but not exclusively) the victim's, and therefore it will contain a certain level of bias and opinion to get across this single perspective, which may not be the overall opinion of those involved or associated. Murder Mile is just one possible retelling of each case. Murder Mile does not set out to cause any harm or distress to those involved, and those who listen to the podcast or read the transcripts provided should be aware that by accessing anything created by Murder Mile (or any source related to any each) that they may discover some details about a person, an incident or the police investigation itself, that they were unaware of.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorMichael J Buchanan-Dunne is a crime writer, podcaster of Murder Mile UK True Crime and creator of true-crime TV series. 
Archives
February 2026
Subscribe to the Murder Mile true-crime podcast
Categories
All
Note: This blog contains only licence-free images or photos shot by myself in compliance with UK & EU copyright laws. If any image breaches these laws, blame Google Images.
|