WORD spread quickly around St Teresa's Gardens, in south inner city Dublin, that the tenant in 107 was suspected of killing two women. Many in the flats knew his victims Patricia McGauley and Mary Cummins.

The residents were convinced the only reason Michael Bambrick was given a flat was to allow the gardai to keep an eye on him. It was the spring of 1995 and he had already been questioned by gardai.

His neighbours allowed their children to mix with his young daughter, Adrienne, and the children of his girlfriend, Stella Mooney. But within months there were allegations that he had interfered with two local children and the women of the flats demanded action. Bambrick fled as residents picketed his home.

"We were convinced he had killed the two women. We had him already tried and convicted on that," the residents association PRO, Mr Thomas Twomey, said.

They knew him of old. Bambrick had lived in St Teresa's Gardens with Patricia McGauley in the early 1980s and he was "just as weird then", his former neighbours say.

We used to call him Josephine because he kept nicking knickers from the line," said one woman. "He was into children's clothes and young girls bras. Our mothers didn't have much then. They couldn't afford him stealing things. So they would sit around at night and watch him.

"Not tonight Josephine, we'd shout at him. He would just grunt and go on his way," she said.

The women in St Teresa's Gardens can afford some black humour. But many still fear the man who killed and dismembered the mother of two of his children local woman, Mary Cummins.

"Even after he was arrested I would watch the pram sheds, afraid that he might come back," said his former next door neighbour, Ms Pauline Carroll.

Michael Bambrick was born in England on September 16th, 1952, the third son of William and Edith Bambrick. His father had three, daughters from a previous marriage.

The family moved to Ireland when he was five, living in Dublin's slums Keogh Square before moving to Rossmore Road in Ballyfermot.

When he was 20 he met Marie Hayes and six months later they married. They had a son a year later. But the marriage did not last and he returned to live with his parents until their death in the early 1980s when he sold the family home.

In 1982, he met Patricia McGauley. She moved into his home in St Teresa's Gardens where their first child, Adrienne, was born. They later moved to St Ronan's Park, Clondalkin, where their youngest daughter, Louise, was born.

Bambrick worked on and off as a bouncer and handyman but regularly argued with Patricia about getting a job. He was a petty criminal, and ran up six convictions for burglary and larceny. One was for stealing women's underwear.

In court last week, counsel for Bambrick said he was a man prone to unusual sexual practices including cross dressing and bondage games.

Bambrick admitted he "got enjoyment" out of tying women up and stuffing tights in their mouths while he had sex with them. He would dress in women's clothes during sex.

"He was very manipulative in his relationships with women," said a Garda source. "A number of women were lucky to escape death during these sessions," he added.

"Bambrick was a transvestite but wanted more. He wanted to be a transsexual and had discussed the medical implications with a number of people."

Associates of Bambrick say he came across as ordinary. "He was sensible and didn't get into trouble," said one friend.

"Once when Patricia was having a row with him she shouted at him that he wore women's clothes."

After killing Patricia McGauley, he told associates he believed she had gone to England. His daughter, Louise, was immediately taken into care but his eldest daughter stayed with him at their home in St Ronan's Park. She was subsequently taken into care also.

After killing Mary Cummins, Bambrick moved out of St Ronan's Park. He met Stella Mooney in January, 1995, when the young Dublin mother of two was staying in an inner city hostel. They started going out together. The Eastern Health Board put them up in a bed and breakfast on Gardiner Street, before they were given a flat in St Teresa's Gardens.

After being thrown out by residents, they went to live in Queen Street where they were also forced to leave. In North King Street flats they suffered the same fate.

On June 24th, as he sat down for breakfast in a kitchen run by the Capuchin Brothers in Church Street, he was arrested by gardai. Thirteen hours later he confessed to the killings.

While on remand in Arbour Hill he gave his consent to allow Stella's child to be adopted.

Bambrick is currently being held at Arbour Hill in a special unit for sex offenders. He was moved there following an assault by inmates in Mountjoy. He has settled in well, say prison sources, "he likes discipline and is a model prisoner".