John Cribb

Who is John Cribb?

John Ernest Cribb is an Australian triple murderer from Sydney, New South Wales, currently serving three consecutive sentences of life imprisonment plus 45 years for the rape and murder of Valda Connell and the murder of her children Sally and Damien at Swansea on 11 August 1978 and numerous other offences.

In August 1978, Cribb was on parole after having served six years of a nine-year sentence for armed robbery. He broke into the Connells' Baulkham Hills home and when he came out at about 3pm, Valda Connell, 39, had just come home in her car with two of her six children, Sally, 10, and Damien, 4. Cribb kidnapped them and drove north. He later rang Valda's husband, Paul, from a phonebox and said he had been having an affair with Valda, who had now run away with him to Queensland. Police originally believed Cribb's story, despite its implausibility; the Connells were a strong church-going family, and said the rosary every night.

They heard nothing until they were on their way to church on Sunday morning; Paul Connell and his other children learned the bodies of Valda, Sally and Damien had been found in a car boot near Swansea.