The accused triple-murderer tells police “you gotta be joking” during previously unseen footage of his arrest at his Perth home back in 2016 for the Claremont serial killings.

Dramatic video of the 2016 arrest of Bradley Edwards for the Claremont serial killings has been played in the WA Supreme Court, including the moment he first denied any involvement in the murders of three women.
Key points:

• The video shows Bradley Edwards handcuffed and sitting on the floor
• He replies “I’m innocent” when told what he is being arrested for
• The families of his three alleged victims were there to see the video

In the video, filmed by police at Edwards’s home in the southern Perth suburb of Kewdale, the former Telstra technician is shown handcuffed and sitting on the floor of a hallway, wearing a red polo shirt and jeans and looking dishevelled.
When told by Macro Task Force investigator Detective Senior Sergeant Joe Marrapodi that he was being arrested for the murders of Ciara Glennon, Jane Rimmer and Sarah Spiers in 1996 and 1997, along with the aggravated sexual assault of a teenager at Karrakatta Cemetery in 1995 and the indecent assault of another teenager in her Huntingdale home in 1988, Edwards reacted with disbelief.
“You gotta be joking,” he said.
“What the f***? I’m innocent.”
Edwards’s appeared clearly shocked in the video of his arrest.(ABC News)
It is the first time the marathon trial, which is in its sixth month, has heard from the man accused of murdering three young women in Perth in the mid-1990s, apart from a brief acknowledgement of his name at the start of every day and his denial of the charges against him at the start of the trial.
Senior Sergeant Marrapodi told the court he waited outside while officers from the Tactical Response Group (TRG) forced entry into Edwards’s home about 7:30am on December 22, 2016.
After Edwards had been arrested, he entered the house and read him his rights.
Edwards denied assaults he later admitted
The video recording showed a bespectacled Edwards sitting among an assortment of cardboard boxes, plastic bags and coat hangers as he stared up at Senior Sergeant Marrapodi, clearly bewildered.
Asked whether he understood what his rights were, Edwards said he did.
“I’m just trying to process what’s going on,” he said.
“I just want to ring my parents and let them know what’s going on.”
Edwards was an active figure in community sports before his arrest in 2016.(Facebook: KLAC)
Asked whether he was familiar with the Claremont area, Edwards said “a little bit”, but denied ever going there at night and said he had never visited Club Bay View or the Continental Hotel.
Ms Rimmer and Ms Glennon had been at the Continental Hotel on the nights they vanished, while Ms Spiers had been at Club Bay View before she disappeared.
But Edwards admitted that in the early 1990s, until his first marriage in 1994, he had been a regular patron of the Ocean Beach Hotel in Cottesloe, where Ms Rimmer and Ms Spiers had both been drinking on the nights they disappeared.
In the video Edwards also repeatedly denied his involvement in the Karrakatta rape as well as the 1988 Huntingdale assault offences he admitted to late last year on the eve of his trial.
He said he did not know Rowe Park, where he abducted the 17-year-old girl, and had never been to Karrakatta at night.
State prosecutor Carmel Barbagallo SC said in her opening address to the trial that his denial of the two assaults “casts serious doubt” on his denials in regard to the alleged Claremont murders.
Edwards was flanked by two security guards in the packed court when the video was played.(ABC News)
The families of the three victims were in court today, including fathers Denis Glennon and Don Spiers, as well as Jane Rimmer’s brother, Adam.
Edwards’s parents were also present, as were the victims of both the Huntingdale and Karrakatta assaults.
WA cricketer Cameron Bancroft was one of the small number able to secure a seat in the public gallery, with coronavirus social distancing requirements reducing capacity and resulting in many people being turned away.
More denials in police interview
Video was also shown of Edwards’s marathon 12-hour interview with Senior Sergeant Marrapodi and Detective Sergeant Aaron Capes at the Special Crime Squad headquarters in Northbridge, where Edwards was taken after his arrest.
Detective Senior Sergeant Joe Marrapodi testified in court about the arrest.(ABC News: Charlotte Hamlyn)
Told again of his rights and what he was being arrested for, Edwards said he did not know what to do.
“I’ve never been in this situation,” he said.
Edwards was asked whether he would like some time to think about his options, to which he replied:
“I just want to go to sleep and wake up and this will all be a bad dream.”
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Asked about any medical issues, Edwards told detectives he was suffering from depression due to the break up of his relationship with his wife, but was not receiving treatment for it.
He also said he had been injured when the TRG broke down his door, suffering leg abrasions and a cut foot, but he said he did not need medical attention.
Edwards repeatedly denied any involvement in the murders, telling police: “I’m not involved in any of that”.
He also denied involvement in the 1988 Huntingdale assault, although he admitted he knew the victim and had visited her house to swim in her pool once.
The prosecution case in the marathon trial, before Justice Stephen Hall, is expected to wrap up this week, leaving the defence to present its case.
A timeline of the Claremont serial killings
Claremont serial killings more on this story