Inside the mind of serial killer Paul Slater
According to records – those supplied by the police and what the papers reported – Paul Slater’s first victim was Harriet Jennings, whom he raped and murdered in 1975. But Paul has subsequently divulged further details and now, exclusively revealed in this book, Paul shares how his illicit behaviour began much earlier in his childhood – in 1968 when Paul was eleven – and that in fact, his first victim was aged just ten.
Raised single-handedly by his mother, Paul never knew his father – instead, he became accustomed to a string of different men coming and going from his home because that’s how his mother made her money. Paul shared that on a daily basis from the age of five, he was shoved into a wardrobe and threatened with a beating if he so much as ‘made a peep’ while his mother ‘entertained’ her gentlemen friends.
As the years went by, he came to realise this meant while she had sexual intercourse with them. He spoke of a memory when he’d been in the wardrobe for six hours straight, with just a glass of water. He’d had to use the same glass to urinate in. His lack of nourishment and outright neglect led to him struggling at school. He was bullied. He fell asleep in class. He failed in every subject. His way of dealing with it all was to become introverted. And in his head, he began to plan how to hurt others so he could be the one in control for a change.
His first victim, he revealed, was a girl in the class below him. Despite being younger, she’d taunted him, made him feel inadequate and he’d seen how she flirted with all the boys, gaining their attention at every break time. He’d watched as she’d taken different boys around the back of the bike shed, observed her kissing them. He’d waited weeks until she was finally on her own walking home. He knew her route, knew the point in the field near the quarry where it was quiet – she took it as a short cut, so he knew this would be his best opportunity. By age eleven he’d witnessed his mother having sex with strangers – but at that time, he hadn’t wanted to do that. He did want to hurt this girl, though.
He attacked her from behind, jumping on her back and pushing her to the ground, face down in the mud. Then he hit her on the back of her head, and she stopped moving. He spoke about how he’d felt in that moment, and while he admitted it made him feel powerful, he explained it was more than that. It was the release of pent-up anger, shame and hurt that was the key result.
With the victim still and silent, he tore her shirt off and flipped her over onto her front. He traced his finger across the smooth skin of her belly, and he described how an immense sense of calm came over him. As if to cement his thoughts of the act being beautiful and serene, a butterfly landed on her and he watched, mesmerised. Then, without conscious thought, he slowly moved his hand above it, and with a swift slap, he brought it down onto the butterfly, squashing it perfectly flat against her belly.
He said he relived that moment time and time again – it was the most peaceful his mind had ever been: it was as still as both she and the butterfly had been.
Of course, we know this victim didn’t report the attack on her. Nor did she come to further harm at the hands of Paul Slater. Not in the way his later victims would.
Because, I can exclusively reveal that this victim was Claire Woods.
And fifteen years later, she became Paul’s wife.