A SICK serial killer and rapist dubbed the ‘Lonely Hearts Killer’ has died aged 72.

Rodney Francis Cameron – also known as Rodney Mallard – was pronounced dead at a hospital in Sydney after spending decades behind bars for a string of vile acts against women.

The depraved Australian was serving a life sentence for the murder of a woman he met through a dating show on the radio in June 1990.

Innocent 44-year-old Maria Goellner was beaten and strangled to death inside the Sky Rider Motor Inn at Katoomba in the Blue Mountains.

He was convicted of the heinous crime and sent to Lithgow maximum security prison.

Cameron used the alias Rodney Mallard when he appeared on the dating show due to his disturbed past.

He was released from prison only seven months earlier after serving more than a decade in jail for two other twisted murders.

Both deadly attacks came within weeks of each other in 1974.

He was convicted of raping and murdering former colleague, Florence Edith Jackson, 49, in January.

Cameron had lured in Jackson by asking for her help after he lost his job as a trainee nurse.

As the pair grew close, he assaulted her and killed her in Katoomba.

He fled the murder scene and escaped across the Victoria border before picking up his second victim.

Young 19-year-old hitchhiker Francesco Ciliberto was killed by Cameron just after the pair met and he offered to give her a lift.

He served nine years in prison in NSW for Ms Jackson’s murder, before being extradited to Victoria where he was locked up for a further seven years for killing Ms Ciliberto.

He was released from prison in November 1989 before going on to murder Ms Goellner the following.

He died at the Prince of Wales Hospital at around 11.30pm on Saturday, The Daily Telegraph reported.

Cameron had been diagnosed with terminal cancer and was being treated in a palliative care ward at the Randwick hospital for some time.

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