David Ronald Thompson: Mandurah killer to stay in jail after parole board recently reviewed his status

WA sex monster and murderer David Ronald Thompson will remain in jail for the time being after the parole board recently reviewed his prisoner status. As reported by The West Australian nine days ago, Thompson — who is currently serving time for killing Mandurah pensioner Hilda Fry in her home in 1993 and for a string of sex attacks on young girls in the Mandurah area in the late 1990s — had his case reviewed by the WA Prisoners Review Board on Friday. That review assessed Thompson’s suitability for a re-socialisation program, a scheme designed for prisoners serving lengthy jail terms to help them reintegrate into the community. But on Friday, the Prisoners Review Board decided to adjourn whether to consider Thompson’s suitability for such a program until February next year. It effectively means his prisoner status won’t change until at least then. The decision has relieved Justine Woosnam, who was forced to jump out of a moving car when she was attacked and kidnapped by Thompson near Mandurah in 1998. “I am definitely relieved at the decision and that he will stay where he is,” Ms Woosnam told The West this week. “I wish he was never even considered for any sort of re-socialisation program or parole. “He doesn’t deserve to be free. He has taken so much from so many people already. Why give him another chance? They should just throw away the key because he won’t change.” Before Friday’s parole board hearing, Ms Woosnam said she hoped Thompson, who is being held in Acacia Prison, was never released because she believed he remained a danger to all women. Ms Woosnam gave an extraordinary account of her terrible ordeal to the media in 2019, describing how Thompson grabbed her in October 1998 near Melros Beach, just south of Mandurah. After being flung into his car and driven away, Ms Woosnam made the courageous decision to jump out of the vehicle as Thompson changed gears and momentarily released his grip on her. “He must have been going about 70 (km/h) — I don’t know. All I can remember thinking is, ‘I’m getting out of here. I don’t care what it takes. I’m getting out of here’ — just this incredible feeling of ‘nothing else matters’,” she said at the time. “I hit the road, and I rolled. I can remember opening my eyes and looking up, seeing the brake lights of the car, and I just got up and ran to the nearest house. I knocked on the door, but there was no answer. “I saw a vehicle go by. They were looking at me, and I yelled out, ‘Help me, help me. Somebody help me. I’ve been attacked!’.” Thompson was arrested and charged with the attack on Ms Woosnam soon after. He was also charged with attacks on three other young women and later pleaded guilty to 10 charges, including indecent assault, sexual penetration without consent and kidnapping. A year after being jailed for 15 years for those offences, Thompson pleaded guilty to the 1993 murder of 87-year-old Ms Fry in her Mandurah home. In sentencing Thompson to 14 years for the murder, Supreme Court Justice Desmond Heenan described the killing — carried out during a burglary — as one of the worst cases he’s ever dealt with.