BRADLEY Robert Edwards, the man accused of murdering Sarah Spiers, Jane Rimmer and Ciara Glennon in a case that became known as the Claremont serial killings, will face a judge-only trial next year.

Prosecutors asked for a judge-only trial back in September, and this morning that request was granted in the Supreme Court where Mr Edwards appeared in person.

He wore a blue shirt, black and blue tie and glasses.

Prosecution suggested one judge should see through the case from beginning to end.

Mr Edwards pleaded not guilty to the three charges of wilful murder in July.

He also pleaded not guilty to charges relating to two earlier incidents, one in 1988 and the other in 1995.

These were two charges of aggravated sexual penetration without consent, two counts of deprivation of liberty, one of indecent assault and one of breaking and entering.

The disappearance of Sarah Spiers from the streets of Claremont early in 1996, followed by Jane Rimmer and Ciara Glennon, is one of Australia’s most chilling and baffling cases.

Ms Spiers disappeared when she phoned a taxi at the Stirling Road-Stirling Highway intersection at 2am on January 27, 1996.

When the taxi arrived she was not there.

Ms Rimmer went missing from Claremont after a night out on June 9, 1996. Her body was found in bushland in Wellard, south of Perth, two months later.

Ms Glennon disappeared on March 14, 1997. Her body was found in bushland in Eglinton, north of Perth, a month later.

On December 23 2016, Mr Edwards was charged with the murders of Ms Rimmer and Ms Glennon as well as two other attacks on young women – a 17-year-old in Claremont in 1995, and an 18-year-old in Huntingdale in 1988.

He was charged in February this year with the murder of Ms Spiers, whose remains have never been found.