A 65-year-old man has admitted to shooting a man dead, raping two women and falsely imprisoning another in three separate attacks on couples in a Melbourne park more than 35 years ago.
James Dobbie has pleaded guilty to offences including the murder of Rodney Mitchell, who was found dead from a gunshot wound at Police Paddocks Reserve in Rowville on May 23, 1983.
Documents released by the Melbourne Magistrates' Court said Mr Mitchell, 37, had met up with a woman and was undressed when Dobbie, wearing a mask, pointed a sawn-off shotgun through the window.
"Don't move or I'll shoot, and get out," Dobbie told the couple.
Mr Mitchell tried to attack Dobbie, who fired two shots at him, one of which hit him.
Dobbie tied up Mr Mitchell's companion and threatened her when she tried to flee.
"If you try anything like that again, I will shoot you," Dobbie is said to have told the woman.
He then drove away with the woman in Mr Mitchell's car.
Despite being tied up, she was able to unlock the car door and fell out of the car.
Dobbie pleaded guilty to falsely imprisoning the woman.
He also pleaded guilty to a number of rape, indecent assault and false imprisonment charges relating to two other attacks on young couples in the reserve.
In the first attack, in March 1980, Dobbie threatened a couple with a sawn-off shotgun while wearing a stocking over his face.
He forced the 21-year-old woman to tie her boyfriend's hands behind his back, and then tied the man to a tree before raping and indecently assaulting the woman at gunpoint.
In another incident in April 1983, Dobbie was armed with a double-barrelled shotgun when he attacked an 18-year-old woman and her boyfriend in a car.
In that instance, Dobbie made the man lie on the ground away from the vehicle and tied him up using rope and bandages.
Dobbie tore the woman's top open and raped her more than once, the documents said.
A directions hearing has been set for Thursday in the Supreme Court.
