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WHEN murder — the most violent, unforgivable crime a human
being can commit — follows an unimaginably sick sexual attack
on a child, the dimension of horror widens.
That is exactly what happened on the afternoon of November
27, 1987, to a bright, attractive, blonde 12-year-old
schoolgirl at Noosa. Sian Kingi, innocently riding her bike
home, was abducted by two Queensland monsters, Valmae Fay Beck
and Barrie John Watts.
"Today is the day," Watts told Beck minutes before Sian
rode by.
The dumpy and matronly woman — with six children from
previous marriages — stopped Sian and asked about a mythical
missing dog.
Watts grabbed her from behind. Sian, arms and mouth taped,
was driven away to bushland.
Watts raped, beat and repeatedly stabbed Sian and cut her
throat while Beck looked on. The two then calmly went home to
Lowood, had a bath and watched TV.
Beck, 44, and Watts, 34, had been married for almost a
year.
It emerged in their separate trials that the marriage was
going sour and Watts had fantasies about raping and killing a
young virgin.
Beck, obsessed with her rat-featured husband, agreed to
help him.
Watts told Beck, in secretly taped conversations between
the two while they awaited their court hearing, "I'd like to
do it again. You wanted it as well. You wanted to do it
again."
Beck — who showed no reaction to her life sentence — told a
stunned court that Sian "never cried, never shed a tear, (she
was) a brave little girl, she never uttered a peep, she just
did everything he told her."
The sentencing judge described Beck as "callous and
depraved".
Watts was also sentenced to life and both are still in
jail.
The sentencing judge at Watts's trial described him as "a
thoroughly evil man devoid of any sense of morality" and
recommended he never be released.
In 1994, it was reported that Beck had changed her name and
become a "born again Christian".
In an amazing and possibly delusional letter three years
later, Watts applied for a low security prison rating,
claiming "I am not a repeat serious crime offender", "I have
no sex or violence offences on my record", "I am not an escape
risk" and "I maintain my innocence".
The appeal failed.
A smiling villain
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