The 'Bondi Beast' attacked dozens of women. Forty years later we finally know his name.

Content Warning: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised that the following article may contain/contains images, names and voices of people who have died.

At Keith Simms' funeral in March this year, loved ones described him as doting father and grandfather, a larrikin, and hero. But this week, NSW Police exposed a far more sinister side of the Sydney man.

After a lengthy investigation, Simms, who died of kidney failure aged 66, has been posthumously linked to 31 actual and attempted sexual assaults in Sydney's eastern suburbs between the mid-80s and early 2000s. These assaults saw the perpetrator dubbed 'The Bondi Beast'.

The breakthrough by detectives from Strike Force Doreen has reportedly left Simms' family, including his wife of 43 years, stunned. 

"They are so innocent in all of this and we would hate to see them victimised in any way," Sex Crimes squad boss Detective Superintendent Jayne Doherty said, according to The Daily Telegraph. "There was nothing to indicate he would be involved in this type of thing."

It is only through DNA evidence that Simms' sinister double life has finally been unearthed, and that we can finally look upon the face of the hooded figure who terrorised so many women.

Uncovering the 'Bondi Beast' rapist.

Police started by looking into just five cases. 

It was 2005 and detectives from State Crime Command’s Sex Crimes Squad established Strike Force Doreen to investigate a small cluster of historic sexual assaults that had been reported in eastern Sydney five years prior.

But as they reviewed the cases, the probe was expanded to include 27 attempted or actual sexual assaults in the area between 1985 and 2001, all linked by DNA evidence and modus operandi.

The survivors, who ranged from 14 to 55 years old at the time of the assaults, were either abducted while out jogging or walking, or were violated in their own homes.

The first case connected via DNA occurred in September 29, 1987, when a 23-year-old woke to find a man armed with a knife placing his hand over her mouth and sexually assaulting her. The last occurred at Waverley Cemetery in October 2001 where a woman was assaulted by a man wearing balaclava and wielding a knife. (It remains unclear why he stopped after that attack.)

All the women described the male perpetrator as being between 160-180cm tall, with a dark complexion, dark, wavy hair, brown eyes and a broad nose. They told police he was armed with a knife or threatened to use one, that he kept his face covered, and that he spoke with an Australian accent.

In 2016, police went public about their global search for the 'Bondi Beast'. Image: NSW Police.

Come 2016, police went public about their global search for the 'Bondi Beast' and released a sketch of the alleged perpetrator of this "horrific string of crimes".

"The offences just kept coming, we kept identifying matters," Detective Acting Superintendent Mick Haddow told media at the time.

"Certainly the media had been advised when all these offences had occurred originally, but the offences just kept being linked by us and we wanted to stay in a covert phase to try and identify this person.

"That hasn't been able to [happen], and that's why we're going public."

But it took another six years and advances in DNA technology for detectives to find their man.

"Strike Force Doreen investigators have since contacted the survivors and advised the man has been identified, but due to the circumstances, no further legal action can be taken," police said in a statement on Monday.

NSW Police Minister Paul Toole congratulated detectives on their commitment to the case.

"Let me put it on the record that this 'Bondi Beast' was an animal. This person was a low-life. This person was somebody who doesn't deserve to be even walking in our community," he said, according to ABC.

"Today there will be sense of comfort of knowing who it is, but [the community] will also feel as though this person hasn't done his time."

If you are a survivor of sexual assault, confidential support is available via 1800 RESPECT. Please call 1800 737 732 to speak to a trained counsellor.

Feature image: YouTube/StAndrews Catholic Church.