TWISTED COUPLES: David and Catherine Birnie
David John Birnie, and Catherine Margaret Birnie were an Australian couple who lived in Perth, Western Australia. Together, they sexually assaulted and murdered four women, and attempted to murder a fifth. The media dubbed this case as the “Moorhouse Murders,” as their home resided on Moorhouse Street, in Willagee. I was inspired to write this article due to the movie based on this story, “Hounds of Love” (2016).
WHO WERE DAVID AND CATHERINE BIRNIE?
David Birnie, born on February 16th, 1951, grew up in a dysfunctional household and was the oldest of 5 siblings. Some of the household troubles he and his siblings endured were allegedly alcoholism, promiscuity, and incest. The family never ate meals together, and the parents never cooked meals for their children. At the young age of 15, Birnie dropped out of school to become an apprentice jockey for Eric Parnham at the Ascot Racecourse. While he worked there, he had physically abused the horses and experimented with exhibition. During one evening, Birnie put a pair of stockings over his head and broke into an elderly woman’s home in an attempt to rape her. He had been in and out of prison for misdemeanors and felonies by the time he was an adolescent. When he was an adult he became a pornography and sex addict, and was also a paraphiliac (the experience of intense sexual arousal to atypical objects, situations, fantasies, behaviors, or individuals. It had also been defined as sexual interest in anything other than a consenting human partner). In his early 20’s he married his first wife, Kerrie, in 1972, and divorced in 1982. Together they had a daughter named Tanya, who never married and never had children, as she didn’t want to “spawn another David Birnie.” She had also changed her surname after his conviction.
Catherine Birnie, born on May 23rd, 1951, was only two years old when her mother died as she gave birth to her brother, who also died just two days later. Her father was unable to raise her alone, and sent her to live with her paternal grandparents. When she was 10, there was a custody battle, and her father regained full custody of her. She met David when they were only 12 years old, and began a relationship together two years later. However, her father didn’t like him and he begged her to stop seeing him, considering the fact that their involvement together caused her to get into trouble with the police. However, his disapproval of their relationship only ended up strengthening it. Her time in prison throughout her adolescent years offered Catherine a chance to break away from David. Encouraged by a parole officer, Catherine began working for the McLaughlin family as a housekeeper. She married Donald McLaughlin on her 21st birthday. The couple had seven children together, and her first born, who was a son, was killed by a car during infancy. In 1985, she left her husband and all six children to live with David, and even though they were never legally married, she changed her surname to his, Birnie.
The abductions and murders happened nearly instantly after they moved in together. Within five weeks, they abducted five women, all aged between 15 and 31. All victims were sexually assaulted and murdered, with the exception of their last victim, who managed to escape the day after she was captured. Her escape ended their killing spree.
THE VICTIMS
Mary Neilson (22): She was a psychology major at the University of Western Australia and worked part time at a deli. She met David when she went to the spare parts yard, where he worked, looking for tires for her car. He offered to sell her really cheap tires and gave her his phone number. When she arrived at his home on October 6th, 1986, she was gagged, chained to the bed, and sexually assaulted while Catherine watched. She was then taken to Gleneagle, in Bedfordale, where she was assaulted again, and then strangled to death with a nylon cord. He then proceeded to stab her thinking that it would speed up the decomposition process, as he “read that in a book somewhere.” He then buried her in a shallow grave. Mary would’ve received her degree in psychology one year after her murder.
Susannah Candy (15): She was abducted two weeks after the murder of Mary, as she was hitchhiking along Stirling Highway in Claremont. She was a brilliant young girl who was doing an amazing job at school, and lived with her two loving parents and siblings. The couple was driving along for several hours looking for their next victim when they saw her looking for a ride. As soon as she entered the car, she was held there by knifepoint while they tied her hands behind her back. Once they got back to the house, just like Mary, she was gagged, chained to the bed, and sexually assaulted. They also had her write a letter to her family to assure them that she was safe, as her father was a well known surgeon, but they still feared for her life.
After David had finished assaulting Susannah, Catherine got into bed with them, as she knew this type of thing turned him on. Together, they assaulted her one last time, and David proceeded to try and strangle her with a nylon cord, but she became hysterical. They forced sleeping pills down her throat to calm her down, and once she was asleep, he put the cord around her neck and told Catherine to strangle her. He wanted her to prove her undying love for him by murdering her. Catherine went through with the demand and killed her while he watched. When Catherine was later asked why she did it, she told them:
“Because I wanted to see how strong I was within my inner self. I didn’t feel a thing. It was like I expected. I was prepared to follow him to the end of the earth and do anything to see that his desires were satisfied. She was a female. Females hurt and destroy males.”
They buried her near the grave where Mary was, located in the State Forest.
Noelene Patterson (31): They spotted her standing by her car on the Canning Highway, as she had run out of gas. They offered to give her a ride, and once she was inside the car, she was held at knifepoint, tied up, and told not to move. When they returned to their home, just as the women before her, she was gagged, chained to the bed, and repeatedly assaulted. The original plan was to murder her that same night, but David decided to keep her inside as a prisoner for three days. Catherine began to feel jealous and threatened, as she noticed him showing signs of an emotional attachment to her. That’s when she decided to slam David with an ultimatum: She would have to kill Noelene, or she would kill herself, and went to grab a knife and put it to her throat to show him that she wasn’t kidding. David then forced sleeping pills down her throat and strangled her to death in her sleep. They buried her body in the same forest, but further away from the other victims. It was said that Catherine got a lot of pleasure from throwing sand on Noelene’s face.
Denise Brown (21): They spotted her waiting for a bus on Stirling Highway, and offered her a ride, which she accepted. Again, she was held at knifepoint, tied up, and brought back to the house where she was gagged, chained to the bed, and assaulted repeatedly. The following day she was taken to the Wanneroo pine plantation. While they were hidden in the forest, David assaulted her again in the car as they waited for the night to come. Once darkness hit, he dragged her out of the car and assaulted her again, and then stabbed her in the neck. They thought that she was dead and began digging a shallow grave and tossed her body inside. However, she was surprisingly still alive and sat up, and David grabbed an ax and struck her with it twice in the head.
Kate Moir (17) The Final Victim: She was abducted at knifepoint after accepting a ride from them. On the ride back to the home, she asked them if they had planned to rape or kill her. Catherine replied with, “we’ll only rape you if you’re good.” However, she was treated differently than the former victims. She wasn’t immediately gagged and chained to the bed, and Instead, they forced her to dance for them, and slept in the couples bed with them, while being handcuffed to David. After she was abducted, they forced her to call her mother and told her that she was okay, and just had too much to drink and was staying at her friend’s house. Kate was very smart and used her words wisely, as her mother knew that she was not much of a drinker.
The next day, David went to work and Catherine went to the door to carry out a drug deal, and forgot to chain her up to the bed. Kate knew that it was probably her only chance she’d get to escape, and climbed through a closed window by breaking its lock, and hit her head on the concrete. She tried knocking on several neighbors’ doors, but no one answered, so she decided to jump a gate and was attacked by David’s dog. She thankfully was able to escape the dog and ran into a nearby vacuum cleaner store. She told them that she had been abducted and raped and the police were called. For some strange reason, the police were skeptical to believe her story, besides one female officer who believed her due to the amount of detail and information she provided, including their phone number and address. She told the police that the Birnies had given themselves fake names, but she read David’s name on a medicine bottle. She also told them that they watched the movie “Rocky” on VHS, and described a drawing she had concealed in their house as proof that she had been there. They found her drawing, as well as the VHS tape in the VCR.
David and Catherine were arrested and gave conflicting stories during their interviews. Catherine claimed that she had never seen Kate before, while David said that Kate had come over to their house on her own free will to engage in consensual sex with them. David eventually was convinced to confess and tell them who the other victims were, and where the bodies were located.
There could be other possible victims that the Birnies were responsible for. Cheryl Renwick vanished in May 1986, and Barbara Western in June 1986.
TRIAL, SENTENCING, AND IMPRISONMENT
When the trial began, David Birnie pleaded guilty to four counts of murder and one count each of abduction and rape. When asked why he had pleaded guilty, he gestured toward the victims’ families and said, “It’s the least I could do.” He was sentenced to four terms of life in prison. After being found sane enough to stand trial, Catherine Birnie was also sentenced to four terms of life in prison. Under law at the time, both were required to serve 20 years before being eligible for parole.
David Birnie was found dead in his cell on October 7th, 2005. He was 54 years old. An inquest found that he had hanged himself from an air vent using a length of cord. Various factors led to his suicide, those being a failure to provide him with his anti-depressants, his computer had been confiscated and he was suspected of sexually assaulting another prisoner. He was described by a former prison officer as a ‘model prisoner’ who looked after injured animals. Catherine was not allowed to be present at his funeral.
Catherine Birnie is imprisoned in Bandyup Women’s Prison. Since being incarcerated she has worked as a prison librarian and appeared in a prison production called Nunsense. Her parole application was rejected in 2007, and it’s stated that she will most likely never be free again. In 2017, Catherine Birnie’s youngest son, under the alias Peter, called for her execution. He has stated that his relation to Birnie has resulted in him being assaulted on multiple occasions.
