Bevan Spencer von Einem (born 29 May 1946)[1] is a convicted child murderer and suspected serial killer from Adelaide, South Australia.

Von Einem first came to attention on the night of 10 May 1972 when he came to the aid of a Roger James, a gay man who had been thrown into the River Torrens during the Murder of George Duncan.

[2] The area was a popular beat where gay men would meet covertly, as homosexual acts were illegal in South Australia at that time.

Kelvin was murdered by von Einem on or around 10 July 1983 in Adelaide, South Australia after having been abducted, held captive, sexually abused, drugged and tortured for five weeks.

Little effort was put into concealing Kelvin's body; he was found wearing the same Channel 9 shirt, blue jeans and white Adidas sneakers which he wore on the day of his abduction, together with the dog collar fitted around his neck.

[5] The autopsy revealed that Kelvin had most likely died from massive blood loss from an anal injury, probably caused by the insertion of a blunt object with a tapered neck, such as a beer bottle, and that he had suffered bruising and injuries from blows to his head, to the left side of his back and also to his right buttock as well as a fractured front tooth which occurred either just before or just after death.

Analysis of Kelvin's bloodstream revealed traces of alcohol and five hypnotic drugs, Mandrax, Noctec, Amytal, Valium and Rohypnol.

The man, known as "Mr. R", was located and informed police in great detail how he and von Einem had picked up young male hitchhikers, had given them alcoholic drinks laced with hypnotic drugs, and had taken them to von Einem's previous home in the Adelaide suburb of Campbelltown, where the young men had been abused overnight and released the next day.

[citation needed] The committal hearing to determine if there was sufficient evidence for von Einem to stand trial for murder began on 20 February 1984.

Von Einem said that he was driving along O'Connell Street in North Adelaide looking for a parking spot in order to buy some fish and chips for dinner.

The trial against von Einem for the murder of Kelvin opened at the Supreme Court Building of South Australia on 15 October 1984 before Mr. Justice White.

For the defence, it was a case of trying to make von Einem's story hold up in court, and raising doubts about his ability to keep Kelvin captive for five weeks and committing the murder.

People living close to the Kelvins then testified that they had heard noises and commotion corresponding to the abduction taking place on the night of 5 June at around 6pm.

The scientists stated that if von Einem's story was true, then there should be a very small amount or even none of the fibres and hair samples from that night still on Kelvin's clothing some 36 hours later, let alone five weeks later.

Faced with such damning scientific evidence, the defence tried to counter this during cross-examination by floating a possible theory that after von Einem's last contact with Kelvin, he had been abducted by other people, who had stored his clothing for five weeks before murdering him and re-dressing him.

[citation needed] In their summation, the prosecution stated that the evidence they presented proved that von Einem's story was full of lies and inconsistencies, and that he did murder (with the help of others) Kelvin.

The earliest von Einem could be released on parole was therefore on 31 October 2007 (after allowing for the fact that a third of the non-parole period could be taken off for good behaviour in prison).

[citation needed] The committal hearing to determine if von Einem should stand trial for the murders of Barnes and Langley began on 5 March 1990 before magistrate David Gurry.

[citation needed] Von Einem's defence counsel appealed the decision, launching an abuse of process action in the Supreme Court of South Australia to achieve a permanent stay of proceedings, as well as stating that the huge media interest in the charges would result in their client not getting a fair trial.

The pre-trial hearing began on 19 December 1990,[citation needed] in the Supreme Court of South Australia, with Justice Duggan as the presiding judge.

The prosecution decided after Justice Duggan's findings two days earlier to have von Einem tried separately for the murders of Barnes and Langley.

This was a shattering blow for the prosecution's case, and on 21 December 1990, on advice from the Attorney-General of South Australia, prosecutors withdrew the charge for the murder of Langley.

[citation needed] On 29 October 2006, The Australian reported that von Einem had been selling hand-painted greeting cards to prison officers for $20 each.

[7] On 4 February 2007, the ABC reported that von Einem had been charged over commercial dealings during his incarceration, including selling hand-painted greeting cards.

[10] On 11 August 2007, The Australian reported that detectives were calling for information to establish the identity of a young man seen in the Seven Network's news archive, showing police searching a storm water drain in the days after the Beaumont Children's disappearance.

[11] On 13 August 2007, the Seven Network followed this with a story that the man standing next to the Einem lookalike in their archived film matched the police sketch of the suspect seen with the Beaumonts at the beach on the day of their disappearance.

However, South Australian Premier Mike Rann had vowed to enforce new legislation to ensure von Einem would never leave prison alive.

[12] On 28 March 2008, the ABC reported that the child pornography found in von Einem's cell had been determined not to have been written by him and that fingerprints did not match.

Defence lawyer Sam Abbott said he expected the Director of Public Prosecutions to drop the most serious charge of producing the material and, if not, he would argue there was no case to answer.