‘Depraved and ruthless’ trucker, 34, killed stranger who offered a favour then moved into her home
A 55-year-old woman was killed by a ‘depraved and ruthless’ trucker who then moved into her home and constructed a lie about her disappearance.
The body of Julie Anne Cooper was found dumped in a gully in bushland in Ashendon, east of Perth in Western Australia. She’d been sexually assaulted and strangled.
The judge that convicted Mathew Hemsley of the crime described the killer as “depraved and ruthless”.
Julie had been living alone when she met the 34-year-old truck driver, at the Saint George Hotel in Innaloo, Perth.
He mentioned that he needed to charge his mobile phone, and Julie offered to let him do it in her car,
The next thing her neighbours knew, Hemsley had moved into her home in Doubleview, a suburb of Perth, and was telling people he was looking after it for Julie while she was away with her boyfriend.
One of Julie’s friends received a text soon after to say she was out of town on holiday.
While living in her home, Hemsley drove around town in her silver Toyota and appeared to be eating her food.
After a week, Julie was missing appointments she’d made, and her son visited her home in an attempt to find out where she was.
Hemsley had gone and Julie’s home was trashed, so her son reported her missing.
Some three weeks after Julie was last seen, police in Western Australia questioned Hemsley.
He told them he’d been in a casual sexual relationship with her for a few weeks and had been staying at her home since.
She had told him to move out, he claimed, because she was getting back together with an ex-partner and moving to Sydney.
Hemsley claimed he didn’t know where she was now.
Julie’s body was found dumped in a gully in bushland in Ashendon a week later.
Police in Perth launched a murder investigation and officers began to piece together the events leading up to Julie’s death; which pointed to Hemsley as the prime suspect.
It is believed that Julie was killed the same day that she met Hemsley; that he had offered to take her to his campervan in bushland and while there, he had sexually assaulted her before strangling her with either a ligature or a collar.
It's thought that he then threw her body down the three-metre gully in which she was found, before heading to a service station to buy petrol so he could set fire to his car at the crime scene.
After committing the horrific crime, Hemsley is said to have moved into Julie’s home and claimed she had moved away.
Hemsley denied killing Julie, and when confronted with CCTV of him driving her car to buy petrol, he claimed she had accidentally “choked herself” to death during rough sex in the bushland.
But investigators didn’t believe Hemsley’s version of events. They arrested him and he was charged with murder.
In August 2019, Hemsley pleaded not guilty via video link from prison; despite the fact he had told an inmate in prison that he had killed Julie himself.
He faced court in 2020 and his defence doubled down on his claims of innocence.
The jury dismissed his claims that Julie had choked herself during a sexual act, and found Hemsley guilty of murder.
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The judge described the killer as “depraved and ruthless” and noted he had “not shown any remorse” for his actions.
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Hemsley was sentenced to life in prison.
He will serve a minimum of 23 years before being considered for parole.
