HE ATTACKED 11 women and changed their lives forever. But there were "many more" female joggers stalked by the bikeway rapist that he let go only seconds before he was about to grab them.
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And such is the twisted mind of serial rapist, Luke James Colless, the 32-year-old couldn't explain to investigators why he felt compelled to violate some women, yet allowed others to jog past unaware how close they were to becoming rape victims.
Colless, a married father of four from Brisbane's northern suburbs, was sentenced to 25 years' jail last week after he admitted to a string of attacks as he became a violent predator on some of Brisbane's most popular jogging and bike tracks.
Scores of women were ogled by Colless as he prowled paths near Enoggera Creek and Kedron Brook, at Chermside Hills, Brisbane Forest Park, Paddington, Kangaroo Point and Burleigh Heads.
"(I) drove around looking for a place to attack someone," Colless told psychiatrist Dr Josephine Sundin.
"I'd go to places I've never been before. If I had an hour or two to spare, I'd do it. If a good opportunity arose, it would happen again."
At first, Colless fantasised – watching potential victims go by as evil sexual thoughts flooded his mind.
"On my drive to and from work, I would see a woman jogging, the same woman each day," he said.
"I started to get compelled to be at the right place at the right time to watch that woman run past. It was as if I had to be there."
He never attacked that woman, but his daily encounters soon proved inadequate for his sordid imagination.
He told psychiatrists and police that he began to stalk many other potential victims at various sites.
"(I'd go) on different days to different places for different women, I felt I had to do it. If I didn't do it, I'd feel upset or agitated," Colless said.
Then, he decided he had to attack.
He committed his first rape on the morning of April 28, 2006 on a jogging path in Ashgrove, in Brisbane's inner north. It was only three weeks after the birth of his third child. "Suddenly (I thought) I've got to do it," Colless said of the menacing urge that made him act out his fantasy.
And so began his evil 27-month rampage of 11 rapes that ended with his capture in July last year.
Each was characteristically the same. The landscaper would change out of his work clothes into a jogging outfit and don a baseball cap.
Colless is big, 189cm tall and 106kg, and strong from his daily labouring work. "His hands smelled of timber," one victim recalled, a clue which at the time didn't directly point to his employment at a commercial landscaping firm at Kelvin Grove in Brisbane's inner-city – only 300m from a bike track at Enoggera Creek.
His attacks became increasingly violent.
One victim recalled that Colless lunged at her with such force that she was thrown from her bike. He then pushed her to the ground and threw his full body weight on her.
"I have never been so scared in my entire life . . . I did not know whether I was going to live," she said.
After the attacks, Colless would return to his parked utility, change back into his work clothes, and continue as if nothing had happened.
"As soon as I closed the door of the car and I walked away, it was like I hadn't even thought those things. My brain shut out all the memories of what I'd done," he said.
And when he watched or read reports of his vile acts as he sat surrounded by his loyal wife and their kids, it was as if someone else had done them.
"I'd see it on the news, I'm saying to myself that's not me, I'm not that kind of person . . . it couldn't be me – even though a little part of my brain knew that it was me," he said.
But it was him and Colless's life had been spinning out of control for years.
At 11, he developed a "profound" fascination with female underwear. He said he was"compelled" to sneak out of his family's home at night to steal underwear from clothes lines.
He did it for five years until his father caught him returning home one night from a sex-driven stealing spree.
"Once Dad knew, I had no desire to steal any more," Colless said.
Colless was the oldest of five siblings and adopted. He said that while his family were loving and caring, he felt "different" to them.
He attended Marist Brothers Rosalie, where he mostly struggled academically.
Fellow students variously described him as introverted, awkward, geeky, not very sociable and "the Dungeons and Dragons stereotype".
Colless left a bizarre and disturbing message in his 1995 Year 12 year book.
He wrote: "To a great world which we enter, to give love, hatred and terror. Keep us straight, aligned and centred."
He met his future wife in Year 10 at a school dance. They had a short relationship then broke up.
But he would come to her rescue years later, in 1999, when he travelled to the United States to renew the relationship after learning she had accidentally fallen pregnant to another man.
He adopted her religion and joined her Baptist church. They returned to Brisbane and married a year later.
Colless told psychologists he cherished his family time and had a close relationship with his wife.
But his double life completely betrayed her trust. And in the end, his deception led to his capture.
On July 16, Colless knew the rainy weather meant he couldn't work at the landscape centre. But he lied to his wife, dressed in his work clothes and headed off.
He drove to the Kangaroo Point Cliffs where he raped a 22-year-old jogger. A witness saw Colless run away and noted his car's registration number.
When arrested by police and later confronted with DNA evidence, Colless admitted guilt. He claimed he did not know how to stop and could not risk telling anyone because he did not want to lose his wife and children.
In the Brisbane District Court last week, Judge Marshall Irwin described Colless as a predator who had callous disregard for his victims.
"They were violated and degraded," Judge Irwin said.
Colless had progressed from fantasies to become a monster and many of those attacked believe eventually he may have killed.
His final victim, the jogger raped at Kangaroo Point, recalled how Colless turned back as he walked away from the attack. He gave a look of "callous indifference" as she lay bloodied and bruised on the ground.
"His casual demeanour as he walked away from me was chilling," she said.
"He showed no remorse. My attacker looked at me as if I was the guilty one, a piece of dirt."
