SYDNEY, Australia -- A man who allegedly shot and killed four teenage girls had been watching television replays of the recent suicide of Pennsylvania State Treasurer Budd Dwyer, police told a suburban court today.
In a brief appearance in court, Richard Maddrell, 27, was charged with four counts of murder.
He was jailed and told to appear at a coroner's court Tuesday.
The victims, 19-year-old twins Kirsty and Jennifer Macgregor, their sister Alexandra, 16, and friend Lisa Chatterton, 19, were gunned down in the Macgregor's home Friday night.
Their bodies were discovered by a father and son who arrived at the home at 1 a.m. Saturday to take the girls on a long-planned camping trip over the Australia Day holiday weekend.
Police prosecutor Harry Allen told the court Maddrell had met the Macgregor sisters in 1985 and had become infatuated with Jennifer.
Allen said Jennifer rejected Maddrell's advances but he continued to come to the house. The mother of the three sisters was taking legal action to stop him from visiting, police said.
The prosecutor described Maddrell as a paranoid schizophrenic and said he told police he had watched replays of the Dwyer suicide on the evening news before going to the Macgregor home with a shotgun and ammunition.
Maddrell is alleged to have said Jennifer answered when he knocked on the door. Maddrell said he told her she had hurt him and 'screwed him up,' but he still loved her.
He then shot Jennifer and walked into another room where he shot the other three girls, police said.
Maddrell was arrested at his grandmother's home Saturday night.
