The Australian man who cut up the remains of two ex-boyfriends is back in police custody after trying to escape parole.
50-year-old Damien Peters was caught by police recently, according to ABC News Australia. The murderer on the run was spotted by citizens who then reported the authorities.
Two officers and a police dog then confronted Peters while he was walking along Church Street in Petersham. Following the arrest, Peters was taken to Newtown Police station and later transferred into the custody of Corrective Services.
Almost 18 years ago, Damien Peters stabbed Tereaupii Akai, 50, twice in the neck before cutting up his body and throwing the remains in a recycling bin.
Eight months later, Peters stabbed 57-year-old Bevan James Frost to death while in the middle of giving the victim a massage. He then cut up the body. After police started investigating the disappearances of both men, they found Frost’s remains, including a severed head, in the bath of Peters’ home.
In 2001, Peters pleaded guilty to murdering and dismembering his two lovers. He claimed that he was the victim of abuse and “battered wife syndrome.” While Justice James Wood of the NSW Supreme Court accepted that Peters was a victim of abuse, and thus lowered the charge from manslaughter to murder, he says the crime was still “deliberate and cold-blooded,” according to News.com.au.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YSBUBVa8Db4
Justice Wood reasoned that Peters’ actions are those of someone who was “cerebrating relatively clearly … despite his continuing abuse of drugs”.
“They also speak of a man lacking, at that time, in much, if anything, in the way of remorse or insight into what he had done,” Justice James concluded.
“However, I accept (Peters) was provoked to a degree by … (a) pattern of physical and mental abuse and … by sexual manipulation or abuse.”
Peters was then sentenced to jail for 21 years but was released on parole in 2016. He then lived quietly while being tracked with an electronic device. But, that peace and quiet didn’t last long.
While being treated at the Prince of Wales Hospital in Randwick on April 7, Peters somehow detached his monitoring anklet and ran away. The anklet was found later that night outside a monastery in Kensington.
“Mr Peters was free to come and go to the hospital as he saw fit,” said Detective Superintendent Rohan Cramsie at the time.
“He was certainly not in anybody’s custody at the time … we don’t know at this stage what has been the catalyst for him to remove the bracelet yesterday. We just don’t know.”
While police were on the lookout for Peters, they released information about him to the general public. Police statements shared that they were looking for a Caucasian male, about 175 to 185 centimeters tall, with a muscular build and short brown hair. They also mentioned that Peters has a tattoo on his right upper arm of a snake wrapped around a panther and tribal-style tattoos on his upper left arm.
Eyewitnesses later spotted Peters visiting gay bars in the area. This eventually led to his arrest.
Again, Peters is back in Corrective Services’ custody after he was caught running out on parole.
