Kiss and Kill: Australia’s most infamous killer narcissists and expert abusers exposed in new podcast

A new podcast exposing the pattern of behaviour of some of Australia’s most infamous killer narcissists and expert abusers examines claims they not only intended to kill their partners but planned it. Featuring some of the world’s leading experts in intimate partner homicides, Kiss & Kill reveals how perpetrators, such as Gerard Baden-Clay, have a much higher risk of recidivism than previously considered. Baden-Clay, who killed his wife Allison at their home in Brookfield in Brisbane’s west in 2012, is eligible for release next year. Professor of Public Protection at the University of Gloucestershire, Jane Monckton-Smith who invented the ‘Homicide Timeline’ which shows the stages leading to murder. “The single biggest predictor being that somebody is coercively controlling, that’s the person most likely to kill you. Second on the list would be violence, not first on the list,” she said. “Traditionally we see the woman as taking the more submissive role and the man taking the dominant role. And some people will sit here and say, well, that’s all changed now. You’re equal now, but that is simply not true. And those messages come through culture, society, religion, law even.” The Homicide Timeline is an eight-stage, evidence-based model mapping the escalation of intimate partner violence from a new relationship to murder. “My research sets it out in a very, very clear timeline and that had never been done before. And I don’t think that they had addressed the planning aspect because a lot of these homicides were rationalised as though, ‘this person was really violent to their partner’ and ‘they just went too far this time’,” Monckton-Smith said. “Or, well, ‘they caught her cheating and they just had this explosion in their mind and just attacked them’.” In Australia, intimate partner homicides occur at least once a week – increasing by 10 per cent in the past two years, according to the Domestic Family and Sexual Violence Commission. While coercive control legislation has now rolled out in NSW, then QLD and most recently SA, it’s been in place in the UK since 2015. Monckton-Smith said it has made a difference but much more needs to be done. “It’s still not understood. It’s still not being used very often. So I think there’s a long way to go, but I would say that conversations have changed,” she said. QUT forensic criminologist Dr Claire Ferguson said domestic violence killers make a choice. “One thing that really gets under my skin is when people say, ‘oh, they snapped’, because we know that that is not happening. These offenders make a choice, and often plan in advance,” she said. “So sometimes the specific timing might not be planned, but the idea is there for a long period of time, and we know that there’s lots of cases where perpetrators even say this to victims. You know they’ll never find your body, or I’ll make it look like suicide, things like that. “The difference is, we know these perpetrators often when they don’t, always perpetrate physical violence beforehand.” According to the NSW Domestic Violence Death Review Team report 2021-23, a third of all homicides in the state were domestic violence related. Two thirds occurred when the victim was leaving and a quarter of the culprits had no record of violence. Former NSW Deputy State Coroner Hugh Dillon lauded the work of death review teams, which also exist in other states including Queensland, but said more could be done if they worked together. “If you see a big picture, you see a very different picture. But we don’t have that big panoramic view as the standard approach to all of these deaths,” he said. “We need to integrate. We need to teach coroners how to think about these things as as things that happen to a lot of people or a significant number of people so that they would see things in context. “And then the coronial findings and recommendations should go back to the people who have the expertise and the power to actually do something about them, which might be in health system or whatever.” In 2017, forensic psychiatrist Dr Russ Scott and Victorian Barrister Dr Ian Freckelton KC wrote a paper called ‘Narcissistic Rage and the Killing of Allison Baden-Clay, focusing on what triggered this. “NPD (Narcissistic Personality Disorder) is associated with dominance and the need to control in an intimate relationship,” Dr Scott said. “So gaslighting is a psychological manipulation used by those with NPD, which is calculated to make the victim doubt their thoughts, values and identity, insults, accusations and verbal abuse, including demeaning the victim by telling her that she’s overly emotional, stupid, selfish or unattractive, are all designed to disorient and devalue the victim and decrease the victim’s self-confidence, making them more dependent on the coercive control perpetrator. “Frequently, domestic violence offenders will blame their victim.” Gerard Baden-Clay was convicted of Allison’s murder in 2014 but successfully appealed a year later. However, that appeal was overturned by the High Court and the murder conviction was reinstated. Dr Freckelton said this was the reason the case caught their interest, particularly given the level of detail that came out as a result. “In the context of domestic violence, it’s well known that the most dangerous period is after the woman has announced she’s leaving or has actually left, that’s when retribution in a brutal way quite commonly occurs,” he said. “And it’s a bit the same with the narcissist. If a narcissist has been spurned or feels they have, it’s then that they can erupt into very violent behaviour and the Baden-Clay scenario was an example of that.” Dr Scott, who works in prisons, acknowledges he’s never assessed Baden-Clay in person, but argues assessing his actions and behaviours is more important. “In the case of a personality disorder, you don’t necessarily need to have done an in-person mental state examination. And in Baden-Clay’s case, there was a lot of evidence of his behaviours, and … enough reliable information to make that diagnosis,” he said. Alison Sandy is the 7NEWS National Investigations Editor and Executive Producer of new podcast Kiss & Kill. Available on LISTNR or wherever you listen to your podcasts and as a vodcast on 7Plus and YouTube.