Showing posts with label 2000. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 2000. Show all posts

Wednesday, 18 June 2008

Brothel-owner's murder: man charged

Detectives have charged a man over the shooting death of a radiographer who moonlighted as a brothel owner.

Victor Elliot, 50, was gunned down leaving a new brothel he was building in Morton Street, Chinderah, near Tweed Heads in May 2000.

Mr Elliot had parked his black Mercedes Benz on the footpath and was going to lock the wire gate, when two ex-soldiers pulled up in a 4-wheel drive and blocked Mr Elliot's exit, the NSW Supreme Court heard last year.

The men were trying to kidnap Mr Elliot, but after he resisted and tried to flee he was shot a number of times with a number of guns, including at least two shots from a .22 pistol and twelve from an AK-47 rifle, the court heard.

Last November, the NSW Supreme Court sentenced former soldier Mike Grupe to 14 years in jail after he pleaded guilty to the killing. The other ex-soldier, Dayal Utz, had already been shot dead in 2003 by Grupe in self-defence, the court said.

The two men had been hired by a third man to kidnap Mr Elliot and extort money from him, Acting Justice Peter Berman said in court last year.

Police last night arrested a 34-year-old Banora Point man at Tweed Heads police station.

He was charged with accessory before the fact to murder, accessory before the fact to detain for advantage, and accessory before the fact to armed robbery.

He was refused bail and will face Murwillumbah Local Court today.

Mr Elliot was chief radiographer at Tweed Heads Hospital. At the trial of Grupe, Acting Justice Berman described his death as "truly appalling".

"Two men, only interested in financial reward, and prepared for violence of a most extreme kind, reacted when their plan went awry by shooting either in the direction of, or directly into, Mr Elliot," Acting Justice Berman said.

"He was helpless on the ground having already been shot twice with a .22 pistol at the time Mr Utz fired twelve 7.62 mm bullets into his body."

Friday, 11 April 2008

Killer child rapist convicted again

A convicted paedophile, who is in jail for raping and killing a toddler after raping the boy's sister, has been sentenced to an extra 12 months' jail for assaulting another girl.

William Clare's new conviction relates to the repeated sexual assault of an 11-year-old girl in 1999 and 2000.

The Sydney man is serving a jail term for raping a three-year-old boy, who died after choking on his own vomit during the attack.

Clare tried to resuscitate him with live electric wires.

He pleaded guilty to the offences while serving a 16-year jail term for raping the toddler's six-year-old sister.

Clare had been babysitting the children at his home for several weeks before the boy's death.

Today, the judge said Clare's long history of child sex offences was an aggravating factor, but he had taken account of the long sentence the paedophile was already serving.

Clare will now be eligible for parole in 2032.