Mark Valera (van Krevel)
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Mark Valera (previously Mark van Krevel) (born 24 April 1979) was convicted in 2000 of the gruesome murders of Wollongong men David O'Hearn and Frank Arkell. He is the youngest man to be given the maximum sentence, that of life without the possibility of parole.
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[edit] David O'Hearn
David O'Hearn was brutally murdered in his Albion Park home on June 12 1998. His head was smashed in with a wine decanter, his head decapitated (it was later found in the kitchen sink), his hand cut off, his pants pulled down - his penis mutilated, and he had been partially disembowled. Valera had used O'Hearn's hand to draw several satanic pictures on the loungeroom walls. In his police interviews later on, Valera claimed that O'Hearn had made sexual advances and had propositioned him. David O'Hearn's family later admitted that he was gay.
[edit] Frank Arkell
Frank Arkell (former Wollongong Mayor) was murdered in his Wollongong home on June 26 1998. His head had been smashed in with a bedside lamp, the electric cord wrapped tightly around his neck. Oddly, tie pins were stuck in Arkell's eyes and cheeks. Frank Arkell was a gay man and had been embroiled in child pornography and child paedophilia scandals in the years leading up to his death.
[edit] Confession and Conviction
Three months after the two murders, Mark Valera turned up at Wollongong Police Station to confess to the crimes. Valera (previously known as Mark van Krevel) was a 19 year old local man who had never come under police investigations before. He lived in different places around the area, including a house (with a friend) just a few houses down the street from David O'Hearn.
At his 2000 trial, Valera claimed that his father (Jack van Krevel) had sexually and physically assaulted him during his childhood, and that this led him to the two murders. He claimed that David O'Hearn had sexually propositioned him and this caused flashbacks of his troubled childhood. He also claimed that Frank Arkell (an alledged paedophile) had done the same, and that he was trying to save a children from suffering.
In December 2000, Valera was found guilty of two first-degree murders, and sentenced to two counts of life in prison without the possibility of parole. He later appealed the sentence, but the appeal was rejected. He is now serving his sentence at Goulburn's SuperMax Prison.
[edit] Further family Tragedy
Less than two weeks after Valera was became the youngest person 'never to be released', his father Jack van Krevel was found brutally stabbed to death in his Albion Park home. It was later found that Valera's sister and van Krevel's daughter, Belinda van Krevel, had 'asked' her boyfriend Keith Schreiber (who was also a suspect in the David O'Hearn murder) to kill her father because he was molesting her 4-year-old daughter.
Schreiber was found guilty of the murder and was sentenced to 16 years jail. van Krevel was sentenced to 6 years jail (she was released after 3 years).
[edit] References
| Persondata | |
|---|---|
| NAME | Valera, Mark |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Mark van Krevel |
| SHORT DESCRIPTION | Australian double murderer, youngest man given maximum sentence of life without parole |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 24 April 1979 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Australia |
| DATE OF DEATH | |
| PLACE OF DEATH | |
