An uncommunicative and emotionally distant man who showed little reaction to bombshells in his personal life?

Or a romantic and attentive suitor and committed family man who led a normal life in the southern suburbs of Perth?

The many faces of alleged Claremont serial killer Bradley Robert Edwards were set out in the WA Supreme Court this week, where he is on trial for three counts of wilful murder.

The prosecution claims he abducted and violently murdered Sarah Spiers, 18, Jane Rimmer, 23, and Ciara Glennon 27, in 1996 and 1997, likely snatching them from the streets of Claremont after dark and burying them in remote locations.

Only the bodies of Ms Rimmer and Ms Glennon have ever been found. Ms Spiers remains missing, and even though Edwards admits she is dead, he contests the charge of murdering her.

The fact of Ms Spiers's death was one of the 37 admissions his defence counsel, Paul Yovich SC, submitted to court on the first day of the trial, which the prosecution will not be required to prove.

Space to play or pause, M to mute, left and right arrows to seek, up and down arrows for volume. Watch Duration: 3 minutes 59 seconds 3 m 59 s A timeline of the Claremont serial killings

Wildly different versions of one man

Two ex-wives, two ex-girlfriends, other friends — both male and female — and work colleagues all gave their versions of Bradley Edwards in court this week, and it was at times a wildly contradictory picture.

The apparently tender side of Edwards was evidenced by the red roses and cards he sent to women he was trying to woo, and in the home video images projected to the court showing Edwards as a doting stepfather to his second wife's young daughter.

In stark contrast was the indifferent and uncommunicative man of which his first wife spoke, who ignored her as he spent long evenings late at night on his computer and never sought to discover why she eventually left him.

People who knew Edwards at the time of the alleged murders have been questioned about his emotional state. ( Supplied: WA Supreme Court )

The prosecution argues the three alleged murders took place at emotionally volatile periods in Edwards's life, following a pattern it said was already established by his attack on a random woman at Hollywood Hospital in 1990.

This violent assault, which took place as he worked on the hospital's phone lines and to which he immediately confessed, happened the night after he had a row with his then-girlfriend over whether the couple would marry, she told the court.

But there were some inconsistencies in the accounts, with his second wife attributing the attack instead to Edwards's discovery of his first wife's infidelity prior to their marriage.

The second wife told the court Edwards had blamed the assault on a "brain snap" he had after hearing the news.

"She had cheated on him and he couldn't cope with it," she said.

Bradley Edwards blamed emotional distress for his attack on a hospital social worker, his ex-wife said. ( Supplied: Supreme Court of WA )

First wife spoke of an emotionally distant partner

Edwards's emotional state was a constant line of questioning as those who knew him best testified before Justice Stephen Hall.

Under examination from prosecutor Carmel Barbagallo SC, his now 50-year-old first wife spoke of Edwards as an emotionally distant man who did not discuss relationship issues, even when their marriage was under extreme stress.

Some examples she recounted included:

When he discovered her kissing their flatmate — he simply walked out of the room and the trio continued to live under the same roof

When he — he simply walked out of the room and the trio continued to live under the same roof When she moved out of the house some months later — he didn't ask why

When some months later — he didn't ask why When he met up with her on two subsequent occasions — they did not discuss their relationship at all

When he on two subsequent occasions — they did not discuss their relationship at all When she tried to raise the subject of their relationship the morning after they had had sex in the former marital home — he remained silent

When the morning after they had had sex in the former marital home — he remained silent And, importantly, when she told him she was pregnant to another man in mid-1996 — he showed no emotion and merely enquired as to whether the baby could be his

The first wife was also not especially useful to the prosecution in establishing timeframes linking his state of mind to the three alleged murders.

While the State argues he murdered Ms Spiers on the night of Australia Day 1996, after his by now estranged ex-wife refused to attend a fireworks display with him, the woman would not be pinned down on dates.

Yes, he did ask her to see some fireworks after turning up to her parents' house unannounced, and yes she did refuse to go, but she could say only that the date was in late 1995 or early 1996.

And she gave no evidence to suggest Edwards was distressed by her rejection — on the contrary, he "did not seem upset" and "he accepted it", she said..

It was his second wife who provided the most explosive testimony.

Partner 'feared for her life'

Animated and seemingly keen to present her version of their relationship to the court, the woman said Edwards was initially attentive and loving, taking her and her young daughter to restaurants and going on picnics.

But by 2014 things had started to go badly wrong, prompting her to start examining his bank statements, and ultimately prompting her to leave the marital home in July 2015, more than a year before his arrest.

The ex-wife testified that she had made the notes after their relationship had "started to escalate" and that she was "sick and tired of the lies".

Bradley Robert Edwards belonged to the Kewdale Little Athletics Club in later years. ( Facebook: KLAC )

However, her testimony raised almost as many questions as it answered.

Why did she take meticulous handwritten notes of portions the bank statements, including ATMs from which he apparently withdrew cash during a period from July 1996 to 1998?

And why did she tell the court that she "feared for her life"?

Paul Yovich (centre) cut off Edwards's second wife's testimony. ( ABC News: Hugh Sando )

The point was not explored further by either prosecution or defence, and indeed the woman was cut off when she tried to explain further, with Mr Yovich telling her he did not need her "editorial".

Cars, clothes and the crucial DNA evidence

The vehicles Edwards drove were under the spotlight this week, with every witness asked to describe in detail their recollection of which car he drove and what periods of time.

Witnesses were also asked about the type of uniform Edwards — a technician for Telstra — wore and the colour of it.

Bradley Edwards was flanked by security in the special courtroom set up to hear the trial. ( ABC News: Anne Barnetson )

Forensic evidence could well hold the key to the case and the prosecution will be heavily reliant on a mixed DNA sample obtained from material found underneath Ms Glennon's fingernails.

That sample contained two people's DNA — Ms Glennon's and that of a man who scientists will testify is 80 to 100 million times more likely to be Bradley Edwards than anyone else.

But Mr Yovich flagged in his opening address that the defence would base its argument on four cases of contamination of evidence it said had been recorded.

These were:

Intimate swabs taken from Ms Rimmer's body for which initial analysis provided no DNA profile, but which analysis in the UK in 2017 found partially matched that of a male scientist working at state forensic lab PathWest.

for which initial analysis provided no DNA profile, but which analysis in the UK in 2017 found partially matched that of a male scientist working at state forensic lab PathWest. Intimate swabs taken from Ms Glennon's body that also initially revealed nothing, then were found to contain DNA from a different male PathWest scientist

that also initially revealed nothing, then were found to contain DNA from a different male PathWest scientist Fingernail samples from Ms Rimmer's body that were found to have a mixed DNA profile — that of Ms Rimmer and another PathWest scientist

that were found to have a mixed DNA profile — that of Ms Rimmer and another PathWest scientist A branch which had been placed on top of Ms Rimmer's body that yielded a partial DNA profile that matched "the profile of a victim of a completely unrelated crime whose samples were processed in the PathWest lab some days on either side" of the branch sample

The trial continues next week, when more of Edwards's friends and associates are expected to testify.