Cricket bag killer strangled his teen lover and hid her decomposing body for months. He was set free despite the worst fears of his victim’s mum – but now he’s back in jail and accused of a vile rape ordeal

Cricket bag killer William Matheson – who strangled his teenage girlfriend and hid her decomposing body in a basement – has allegedly raped a woman over three days at a hotel while on parole for the murder.

A bail hearing on Tuesday heard the convicted murderer sexually assaulted the woman, 38, in Sydney while he was wearing an electronic satellite tracking anklet.

Police allege the assault continued despite Matheson, 42, ‘repeatedly’ being told to stop.

Matheson had met the woman in May 2025 via a fellow inmate who was in an 11-year-long ‘open relationship’ with the alleged victim, the court heard.

The court was told the inmate had asked the alleged victim if she would spend time with Matheson, to which she replied: ‘I suppose I can.’ 

Matheson was arrested two months after meeting the woman and charged with sexual assault without consent and sexually touching another person without consent.   

He was refused bail and 12 days later his parole was also revoked.

Appearing at NSW District Court on Tuesday via video link from jail, Matheson looked considerably older than the teen killer whose 2003 crime caused national outrage.

Wearing glasses, prison greens and with his now-grey hair swept back, Matheson constantly looked down as Judge Mark Williams or prosecutors referred to his past crime or fresh allegations.

In 2003, after his ex-girlfriend Lindsay Van Blanken, 18, ended their relationship when she met a new partner, Matheson lured her to a meeting and choked her with cable ties. 

He crammed her body into a Slazenger cricket bag and left it in a basement storeroom of a Queens Park apartment block in Sydney’s eastern suburbs where he lived with his parents.

As her family launched a frantic two-month hunt for the mysteriously missing teen, her decomposing body remained hidden until its discovery in January 2004. 

Matheson was sentenced in 2006 to at least 18 years in jail for her murder, with a maximum term of 27 years, which was later reduced to 25 years. 

After serving 19 years, he was released on parole in May 2023 despite fierce opposition from his victim’s mother Cynthia Van Blanken, who warned he was still a danger. 

‘If they let him out next week, they will be responsible for what happens and it won’t be good,’ she said weeks before he walked out of jail.

Matheson was released with six years remaining on his sentence after the NSW State Parole Authority ruled he was a ‘low risk’ of reoffending. 

The former cellist had been on parole for just over two years when he is accused of sexually assaulting the woman. 

Matheson was arrested at a home in Randwick, in Sydney’s east, and has been held in jail ever since.

Matheson applied for bail this week, but would have remained behind bars on his revoked parole in any event as he awaits trial in March 2027 on the new charges. 

Judge Williams described the new charges as ‘very serious’.

Matheson’s defence told the court the prosecution’s allegation of ‘three days’ of offending was ‘somewhat misleading’ and said there was ‘nothing to suggest it was an ongoing pattern of violent behaviour’.

While serving his jail sentence for murder, Matheson had previously said: ‘I think that I have now taken a more peaceful and pragmatic approach to life.

‘I remember that I was greatly depressed when I came into custody and could not play the cello.’

In 2016, 13 years after he killed Ms Van Blanken, her backpack was found on a Randwick building site, close to where Matheson was living at the time of the murder. 

Near the backpack were human remains of at least two women. The fragments included a leg bone, curved bones and part of a skull with a nail in it.

It was speculated the bones may have belonged to Matheson who had a bone collection.

Matheson became eligible for parole in May 2022, and was released a year later. His maximum sentence expires in 2029.

He applied for bail on the conditions that he live with his parents in Randwick under virtual house arrest, only go out under escort to report to police and abstain from alcohol and drugs. 

On Tuesday, Judge Williams cited concerns about ongoing ‘entrenched attitudes towards women which have escalated to violence’ and a ‘danger to the community’. 

Judge Williams refused bail on the grounds he was an unacceptable risk and faced a lengthy custodial sentence if convicted on the new charges.