WA 'sex monster' Garry Narkle to stay behind bars

WA 'sex monster' Garry Narkle to stay behind bars

Western Australia's most notorious rapist is being kept behind bars indefinitely under the state's dangerous sex offender law.

Garry Narkle has a 40-year criminal history of violent sex attacks against children, women and a man, and was described by former attorney-general Jim McGinty as a "serial sex monster".

The Prisoners Review Board said earlier this year that Narkle's extensive record suggested a high risk of reoffending but he could be monitored and supervised in the community subject to conditions including wearing a GPS tracking device.

The state then urged Chief Justice Peter Quinlan to impose a continuing detention order, saying Narkle was a major risk of relapsing into alcohol and substance abuse, which had been a factor in his offending, if released.

But the chief justice concluded Narkle was "quite capable" of offending again without the effects of drugs and alcohol, and it was highly likely that offending would be opportunistic.


He agreed with psychiatrists who said the 64-year-old had a psychopathic personality disorder and still posed an unacceptable risk to the community.

Narkle's own gratification and sense of entitlement took priority over the humanity and dignity of his victims, and this was deeply entrenched in his personality, the judge said, describing the offending as persistent and vicious.

Narkle's only accommodation option on release was living with his wife, who he met three weeks before he was jailed in 2009, to whom he had not fully disclosed his criminal history and was considered at risk of becoming a victim herself.

Phone calls between the couple showed the relationship was marred by conflict and his verbal abuse of her, which Chief Justice Quinlan described as appalling.

Narkle called her a dog in various conversations and repeatedly referred to an imagined "Romeo".

She said she didn't have any fear of her husband and had not experienced violence at his hands but had only visited him in jail 25 times over the past decade, so their actual physical contact was remarkably little, Chief Justice Quinlan said.

She was articulate and intelligent in giving testimony, he said, but "disengaged and detached - even numb" when talking about Narkle's crimes.

She was emotional, however, when discussing the difficulties she would face seeing her children if her husband was released to live with her.

Laws allowing dangerous sex offenders to be jailed indefinitely in WA were introduced in 2005, sparked in part by Narkle's repeat offending.

They have annual reviews for release, with Narkle's scheduled for November 9, 2020.


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