Who Was MR. Cruel

"Mr. Cruel" is an Australian serial child rapist who assaulted three girls in the northern and eastern suburbs of Melbourne, Victoria in the late 1980s 

And early 1990s, and is the prime suspect in the kidnapping and killing of a fourth girl, Karmein Chan.

The following newspaper caption related to the perpetrator is "Mr. Cruel," a term used by the rest of the media.

He has never been recognized and his three real assaults and suspected killing remain unsolved cold cases. 

There is a prize of $200,000 for the two kidnappings. In April 2016, 25 years after the 1991 kidnapping and killing of Chan, Victoria Police boosted the reward for evidence that leads t o Mr. Cruel's charge and conviction from $100,000 to $1,000,000.

Police define him as highly creative. He meticulously schemed each assault, completing supervision on the victim and home, confirmed he left no forensic evidence, maintained his personality by covering his face at all times, and left red herrings to shift family and/or police interest. He was soft-spoken, and his manner was slow, as he took a break during an assault in a victim's cottage to eat a meal. He threatened to murder his victims with a large hunting knife or a gun.

Crimes

On 22 August 1987 in Lower Plenty, a man cracked into a family house at 4 a.m. armed with a knife and a gun. He tied the hands and feet of both parents and shut them in a cabinet. He tied the son to a bed and raped the 11-year-old daughter. He also cut the phone cables.

On 27 December 1988 in Ringwood, he broke into the back entrance of a home at 5.30 a.m., armed with a knife and a small gun. He bound and fooled the parents, and demanded cash. He snatched their 10-year-old daughter, Sharon Wills, put tape over her eyes, a ball gag in her mouth, and kidnaped her. She was discharged eighteen hours later on the grounds of Bayswater High School.

On 3 July 1990 in Canterbury, he broke into a house at 11.30 p.m. and tied and strangled 13-year-old Nicola Lynas. He placed tape over her eyes, destroyed the phones, and scanned for money. He then drove her to another cottage and assaulted her for fifty hours before releasing her at an energy substation in the suburb of Kew.

Suspected

On 13 April 1991 in Templestowe, a male attacker armed with a knife kidnaped 13-year-old Karmein Chan (who went to the same school as Lynas) Her corpse, with three gunshot injuries to the head, was discovered a year later. It has been noted that a few investigators had questions about whether this murder was by Mr. Cruel. Investigator Chris O'Connor replied to a journalist's concern in 2013 about whether Mr. Cruel was responsible: "we just don't understand if it was Mr. Cruel who killed Karmein ... we just can't be convinced because there isn't enough information to make a value decision about whether it was or wasn't him in the Karmein murder."