A convicted sexual sadist who raped, tortured and degraded women over decades has confessed to murdering a man and soliciting the murder of a woman.
The woman was shot twice with a sawn-off shotgun in a courtroom as she prepared to testify against him, but miraculously survived.
Graham Thomas Sales, jailed for 36 years in 2018 for sadistic sex crimes against women, appeared in the NSW Supreme Court on Friday and said “guilty, thankyou” twice when asked to plead to two cold case charges.
The 56-year-old pleaded guilty to the murder of Ronald Penn, who vanished in October 1995 and was the subject of a massive police excavation dig searching for his remains.
Sales also pleaded guilty to soliciting the murder of Jennifer Forgacs who was shot by another man with the shortened firearm as she sat in a courtroom preparing to give evidence against sales.
The shooting at Wyong Local Court in 1995 led to the introduction of metal detectors in courts across NSW.
In 2018, Sales was jailed for a maximum 36 years with a non-parole period of 27 years for the physical, sexual and psychological abuse of women he lived with between 1988 and his arrest on the murder charges in 2014.
Sales pleaded guilty to six counts of sexual and aggravated sexual assault, kidnapping, common assault and two counts of threatening an officer in charge during a fiery outburst in a court witness box.
The depraved and sadistic offences included raping women with household objects, forcing them to eat their dinner off the floor, hogtying them and putting them face down in the bath.
In that hearing, in which he was described as violent and manipulative, Judge Penelope Wass said “sexual sadistic intercourse” was part of Sales’ “sexual repertoire”.
She also said his actions motivated by “cruelty”.
“The hurt to the victims and thereby the community is insidious, widespread and longstanding,” she said.
On Friday, Sales appeared briefly via video link from Lithgow Correctional Centre where he is incarcerated in a maximum security wing.
Sales was initially charged with murdering Mr Penn and soliciting Ms Forgacs’ murder more than two decades ago, but the charges were withdrawn.
Before he disappeared, Mr Penn, a 61-year-old rail worker, was employed by Sales as a driver because Sales never held a licence.
Sales will be sentenced for the murder and soliciting murder charges later in the year.
