The man police believe killed Pamela Lawrence in her Mosman Park jewellery shop in 1994 has now been placed near three unsolved deaths in England, according to new research for an ABC documentary, the ABC reported on 31 October 2026.
Simon Rochford was identified by a cold case review as the likely killer of Ms Lawrence. He was never charged over her death. He died by suicide in prison in 2006, the night after an ABC TV news story named him as a person of interest.
One of WA's worst miscarriages of justice
The Lawrence case is one of the best-known in Western Australia's legal history. Perth man Andrew Mallard was wrongfully convicted of the murder and sentenced to 20 years. He spent 12 years in jail before he was exonerated and freed in 2006, following a long campaign led by investigative journalist Colleen Egan.
Mr Mallard died in a hit-and-run in Los Angeles in 2019.
At the time of his death, Rochford was serving a 15-year sentence for murdering his girlfriend, Brigitta Dickens. The ABC reports she was killed seven weeks after Ms Lawrence, in similar circumstances, and that Rochford's palm print was found at the jewellery shop.
Photo: Zigzig20s via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0). File photo of Mosman Park, not the site of the 1994 killing.
Back to Stroud
The new details come from Mark of a Murderer, a documentary hosted by Ms Egan, who is now a WA Labor MP and has followed the case for 28 years.
Ms Egan travelled to Rochford's hometown of Stroud, in Gloucestershire, where he spent his early adulthood before moving to Australia. Working with a forensics expert and a criminologist, she looked into unsolved deaths in the area.
"We found him in proximity to three suspicious deaths that have not been solved since 1989, 1992 and 1993 when they occurred." - Colleen Egan, documentary host
According to the ABC, the team found Rochford had lived on the same street as a university student who died in a suspicious barn fire. They also found a journal kept by someone investigating that death at the time, which raised questions about a man named "Simon" and linked him to another death in 1993.
No one has been charged over any of the UK deaths, and the documentary's findings have not been tested in court.
Photo: Air1jwilkins1212 via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0). Stroud, Gloucestershire.
UK police take a fresh look
Ms Egan said much of what the team gathered was new to Gloucestershire Police, who had not known Rochford existed until they saw the dossier.
"From what the police told us, in the UK it was almost unheard of to receive a dossier such as ours and use that to reopen cold cases from decades ago." - Colleen Egan
A push for a review commission
The documentary is also part of a campaign for Australia to set up an independent Criminal Cases Review Commission, like those in the UK, New Zealand and Canada. More than 70 wrongful convictions were documented in Australia between 1922 and 2015, the ABC reports.
Former High Court justice Michael Kirby backs the idea in the documentary, saying juries can make mistakes and institutions need to be strengthened to keep those mistakes to a minimum.
Ms Egan acknowledged the UK commission has been criticised for delays and for overlooking cases, but said it had still seen hundreds of people's cases sent back to the courts.
When to watch
Mark of a Murderer premieres on ABC TV at 8.30pm on Monday 16 November, with all episodes on ABC iview.
Sources: ABC News.
Hero photo: Zigzig20s via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0). File photo of the Swan River at Mosman Park.
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