Melbourne man jailed for 22 years for murder

Press, 22 October 1986, Page 8

Melbourne man jailed for 22 years for murder

NZPA-AAP Melbourne A man who fatally stabbed a young New Zealander 158 times with a pocket knife and then robbed him of $l9B in holiday pay after an office Christmas party was yesterday sentenced to 22 years imprisonment with 12 years to be served before parole. Craig Stephen Elder, aged 20, a factory worker of the Melbourne suburb of Watsonia, had been found guilty in the Supreme Court of murdering Travis Edward Murney, aged 20, of Timaru, on December 20 last year. Mr Justice Murray also sentenced Elder to seven years for the armed robbery charge to be served concurrently. Murney was found lying

in Edgar’s Creek in suburban Thomastown with a Christmas cake beside him in a pool of bloodstained water. The Court had been told the two had been together at the Christmas party and left to drink in a nearby hotel. It was after they left the hotel and while they were walking along a creek bed that Elder attacked Murney. Mr Justice Murray said Elder — who worked with Murney in Thomastown and used to have lunch with him — had been found guilty of a “brutal and horrendous crime.” The jury was asked to believe that a large quantity of amphetamines mixed with alcohol led to the murder, the Judge

said. Elder had testified that he had taken two lots of half a gram of amphetamines ten minutes apart at about 1.30 a.m. the morning of the murder. Mr Justice Murray said he did not believe Elder had taken the amphetamines. “The number of stab wounds reflect you were under the influence of something. My opinion is it was alcohol,” the Judge said.

Mr Justice Murray said he took Elder’s youth into account when he sentenced him. He said he also took into account that at the end of the sentence Elder would have a supportive family waiting for him. His father wept during

sentencing. After the sentencing, Mrs Ann Murney, the mother of the murdered man, said her son had been in Australia for nine months and had only been working at his job for eight days before he was murdered. The family had planned to visit him at Christmas and arrived the evening he was killed. They arrived at 6.30 p.m. and were at the hospital at 7.15 p.m., only to find out he had died at 6.50 p.m., Mrs Murney said. “We’ve got to live with it. We just want peace now,” she said. She said she had been in Melbourne since September 12 and planned to leave next week.