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Call Me Cruel

3.58 of 5 stars 3.58 · rating details · 19 ratings · 9 reviews

In the four months of their affair, Kylie Labouchardiere and Paul Wilkinson exchanged over 20,000 text messages. She was a trainee nurse; he worked in the New South Wales Police Force. Although Wilkinson eventually killed his lover to save his marriage, his main weapon was always words. He was a frighteningly convincing liar and left a trail of devastation across the lives...more

Paperback, 286 pages

Published January 2012 by Allen & Unwin Australia

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Nov 02, 2012 Michael rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: ozzie-gems

Aboriginal police officer Paul Wilkinson had a young family and a wandering eye. He was also a manipulative and obsessive liar who lived in a fantasy world that would take police years to get through. Wilkinson would have a four month affair with native newlywed Kylie Labouchardiere. When she announced she was pregnant and wanted to be with him Wilkinson ended there relationship by taking her life.

In his attempts to hide his crime, he destroyed the lives of not only the Kylie's family but also t...more

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Mar 16, 2012 Bree T rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: australian, crime, true-crime

Kylie Labouchardiere was the product of a broken home. Her parents John and Carol divorced when she was young and she lived with her mother, who soon took up with a violent man. Carol then allowed her own mother, the children’s grandmother, to care for them and raise them after some time, so they did not have to bear witness to the violence her partner inflicted upon her. She chose her boyfriend over her children, something that Kylie never forgot. She witnessed many violent incidents. As a teen...more Kylie Labouchardiere was the product of a broken home. Her parents John and Carol divorced when she was young and she lived with her mother, who soon took up with a violent man. Carol then allowed her own mother, the children’s grandmother, to care for them and raise them after some time, so they did not have to bear witness to the violence her partner inflicted upon her. She chose her boyfriend over her children, something that Kylie never forgot. She witnessed many violent incidents. As a teen she was a bit wild, hanging around older boys with cars. She drifted around, from job to job, never really happy, always searching for something more. At 22 years of age, she married a quiet Navy man named Sean but their marriage lasted less than a year.

When Kylie was 23, she disappeared. She’d been staying with grandmother upon the breakdown of her marriage to Sean and she told her grandmother that she was going to visit some friends and stay maybe a week. She told others that she was going to live in Dubbo with a new partner. Conflicting reports and stories from Kylie herself before she disappeared made it hard to get a clear picture of her movements on the day of her disappearance and an idea of where she was actually going. After all, she was 23. She didn’t need to check in and report her every movement to her family.

Before too long a strange connection to Paul Wilkinson, an Police/Aboriginal Liason Officer who had worked out of Redfern and Marrickville stations became known to the police investigating Kylie’s disappearance. Wilkinson was not a police officer, but he worked as a buffer between them and the Aboriginal community. Relations were sour, as this was around the time of the infamous Redfern Riots. Wilkinson and Kylie had exchanged around 23,000 text messages in the previous four months – it was pretty obvious from that sort of number that they had been having an affair. The police were now fairly certain they were investigating a disappearance due to murder and that Wilkinson was the culprit.

What they didn’t count on, was how slippery Wilkinson was. A pathological liar, he sucked people in who had perhaps low self-esteem, abandonment issues, etc and spun them a web of lies laced in charm. He countered the police’s every move with wild stories that included framing New South Wales police officers with Kylie’s murder. He led them and the family on wild goose chases for her remains that constantly went no where, frustrating everyone.

It would be five years before there was enough evidence to bring Wilkinson to trial for the murder of Kylie Labouchardiere.

I don’t often read a lot of non-fiction but every now and then there’s a title that catches my eye and this is one of them. I’ve been seeing a lot about this book lately, in the newspapers etc. I didn’t know a lot about the case and trial at the time and the book even states that there wasn’t a lot of media coverage, particularly at the trial because a lot of things were suppressed given there was a lack of a body. The cover caught my eye when I was picking up holds from my local library so I added it to my pile.

The book jumps around a lot, so that can get a bit confusing as we go back and forth in Kylie’s life. It seems like if ever anyone was bound for tragedy, it would be someone like Kylie, who was young, naive and it seemed, just looking to be loved. The book paints an unstable upbringing until she was placed with her grandmother and her endless changing of jobs certainly supports the idea that she was looking for something to make her happy. Wilkinson is described as good-looking, charming, self-confident. He was able to spin Kylie a web of untruth that was staggering in its enormity and complexity. When Kylie got news that threatened to derail Wilkinson’s rather cushy life (wife and baby in the background, affairs going on elsewhere) he seemed to give in by telling her they’d go to Dubbo but in reality, it seemed he had very different plans for Kylie.

This book shows just how long a process it can be in a police investigation like this, especially one where there is no body. This book was published this year and Wilkinson still has not divulged the location of Kylie’s body. After the trial (a veritable circus in itself with Wilkinson changing his plea multiple times, acquiring new lawyers, holding up the process in every single way he could conceive of) he offered once again to show police where he thought it was. But his family refused, therefore finally giving up the power he had over them. As this text, sent by Wilkinson to his former wife about the body says:

Everybody has reasons 4 hiding a crime. Mine is the family can live not knowing where and why 4 What they hav don. Call me cruel, call me nasty and YES Id agree, howeva my knowledge ISNT goin 2 b theres. It will hurt them NOT me. (sic)

The police had to work long and hard over 5 years, trying to find the evidence they desperately needed without the most important piece – they body of the victim. In the end it came by something very simple indeed, but it was all they needed to actually get the warrant for his arrest. The amount of lies Wilkinson told, to Kylie, to his wife, to their families, to different police officers, even to his lawyers and the judge at the time of trial, has to be read to be believed. And in his desperation to punish someone he was jealous of, he framed him for Kylie’s murder and cost him his job, his family and his home. And felt no remorse about anything he’d done.

A chilling book – all the more so because it’s all real.(less)

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Feb 25, 2012 Sasha rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012, crime

The prosecutor who was asked to assess this case for prosecution said it was one of the most bizarre cases she had ever come across. It is bizarre and way it is told is compelling.

The victim, Kylie Labouchardiere, was a young, recently separated woman who was involved in an adulterous affair with Paul Wilkinson, who had worked with the NSW Police. She disappeared in April 2004 and her body has never been found. She was obviously a troubled and insecure young woman and she was manipulated by Wil...more

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Jan 12, 2012 Shelleyrae at Book'd Out rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: arc-are, blog-reviews, aussie-author

"...one of the most disturbing things about this story is not only that he [Paul Wilkinson] left a trail of broken careers and marriages and lives in his wake - a trail of misery an devastation- but that he almost got away with it." p5

This quote from Call Me Cruel aptly describes why this case is so fascinating. It took five years to bring Paul Wilkinson to account for the murder of Kylie Labouchardiere, and he did very nearly walk away. This book tracks the case from the moment Kylie disappeare...more "...one of the most disturbing things about this story is not only that he [Paul Wilkinson] left a trail of broken careers and marriages and lives in his wake - a trail of misery an devastation- but that he almost got away with it." p5

This quote from Call Me Cruel aptly describes why this case is so fascinating. It took five years to bring Paul Wilkinson to account for the murder of Kylie Labouchardiere, and he did very nearly walk away. This book tracks the case from the moment Kylie disappeared until Wilkinson was convicted of her murder. A sad tale of a vulnerable woman whose poor choices led her into the arms of her killer, Call Me Cruel includes the known facts and evidence police painstakingly gathered, the story of the grief felt by Kylie's family and some conjecture about what exactly happened to Kylie, whose body has never been found.
Kylie Labouchardiere was just 25 years old when caught a train from the central coast to meet her lover, Wilkinson and was never seen again. Their affair had begun only a few months earlier after an encounter in the hospital where Kylie worked and Wilkinson was a patient. Unhappy in her marriage to her Navy husband, Kylie was susceptible to Wilkinsons charm that disguised his penchant for lies and manipulation. At the time an Aboriginal Community Liaison Officer (ACLO), though on stress leave, Wilkinson lured Kylie into his life by pretending to need her help with a case and quickly began a sexual relationship with her despite having a wife and brand new baby at home.
On the night she disappeared it is believed that Kylie, who had just discovered she was pregnant, was expecting Paul to leave his wife and move with her to Dubbo to begin a new life.
Kylie's murder is undoubtedly a tragedy, and it was made worse for her family by the difficulties police had in proving a case against Wilkinson. Despite the suspicions of the investigators, Paul was arrogantly certain that they would never tie him to Kylie. But as a man who thrived on attention and manipulation he was unable to resist the drama of the case, repeatedly insinuating himself into the investigation with elaborate lies and fantasies which grew and changed over time, placing him more firmly in the frame as a suspect despite the lack of physical evidence. It is rare that a killer is convicted without a body though there is no doubt Kylie was murdered by Paul Wilkinson. In the end is was one of the more than 20,000 text messages that he exchanged with Kylie over a period of less than four months that proved to be the piece that led to Wilkinson admitting (though later rescinding) his guilt.
In his murderous wake, Kylie was not Wilkinson's only victim - Kylie's broken family, his own wife and son and a police officer he involved in his fantasies accusing him of outlandish crimes all paid a price and continue to do so, for his selfish decisions. Oblivious, Wilkinson refuses to reveal where Kylie was dumped and cares not at all for their misery.

Michael Duffy, a journalist and fiction novelist, has told the story of the investigation with sensitivity and respect striking a balance between dry facts and high emotion. Call Me Cruel is an interesting look at a victim, her murderer and the procedures of the police in a homicide case. (less)

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Mar 28, 2013 Karen rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: australian, true-crime, review-books

This true crime account attempts to explain the mind of a manipulative killer.

It’s a cliché, but in this case it’s apt; if you came across a scenario like this in crime fiction you’d be hard pressed to stop your eyes from rolling. As is often the way, however, true life defies anything the very best fiction writers can come up with. Reviewed for The Newtown Review of Books - http://newtownreviewofbooks.com/2013/...

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Apr 30, 2013 Carolyn rated it 4 of 5 stars

A thoroughly chilling story of one man's utter selfishness and indifference to others; especially those close to him. The frustration of the Police and the man he tried to frame leaps out of the pages. Just who can you trust?

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Mar 05, 2012 James Tierney rated it 3 of 5 stars

Michael Duffy's considered telling of a young woman's murder lays bare the grief of unexplained absence & the stop-start investigation that eventually convicted the killer.
I couldn't help but wish for Janet Malcolm's icy precision nonetheless.

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Sep 21, 2012 Isabel Mansfield rated it 4 of 5 stars

Disturbing but good

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May 16, 2012 Penny rated it 4 of 5 stars

A great read!! One of the best true crime books I have read.

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