Armadale where a woman had fought off a balaclava-clad attacker. (The tell-tale Nike footprints had been found later in another flat where the perpetrator had broken in to hide). Fontana had looked through the window of the flat next-door, where women’s underwear could be seen drying on a clothes rack, in full view of any prowler.

“He’ll hit that flat,” Fontana had said, frustrated that the flat’s occupant was out at the time and couldn’t be warned about the possible dangers she was facing. An hour later he was called to the block, when a man was seen trying to break into the flat he had identified.

With no support from above, all Steve Fontana could do was write a report, recommending that Kaufman be targeted on his release –and put it on file.

A New Rape-Investigation Team is Formed

In April 1988, Kaufman was still in prison and Fontana was still thinking about him. But his hopes of finally catching the rapist soared when he was asked to join a new Victoria Police team, headed by Detective-Inspector (and now Assistant Commissioner) Dannye Moloney. Moloney had been allotted the task of evaluating and improving Victoria Police’s methods of rape investigation. Scanning the force to find people with a demonstrated interest in the area, he came across Steve Fontana’s name. Fontana agreed to join the team on one condition: that he could investigate Kaufman the moment he was released.

Moloney agreed. He had been researching UK and U.S. police force advances in rape investigation and what he had read had filled