MY ESCAPE FROM EVIL

BARBARA TELLS HOW SHE WAS ALMOST KIDNAPPED BY A KILLER

- Megan Rowe

It was a balmy autumn evening in 1969 when six-year-old Barbara Damas decided to take her dog, Caesar, for a walk to the beach just streets from her home.

Having just learnt how to do cartwheels, the schoolgirl was practising on the sandy shores of Sydney’s Double Bay when a young man approached her. He began asking questions about Caesar.

Barbara would discover 44 years later that the stranger was paedophile and child killer Derek Percy, who murdered a 12-year-old just months after their encounter.

“He asked me to sit next to him on a park bench overlooking the bay and next thing he was molesting me,” Barbara, now 60, tells New Idea. “I was too young to know what was happening, but I knew it was wrong and I started crying.

“I told him I had to get the dog home then he threatened to kill my parents and grabbed my wrist. I was frozen with fear.”