CRIME IN MELBOURNE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19261, 27 August 1924, Page 7

CRIME IN MELBOURNE

ANOTHER BRUTAL MURDER. BOY’S BODY FOUND IN CREEK. SHOCKING MUTILATION. ENTICED AWAY IN MOTOR CAR. Pleas Association —By Telegraph—Copyright. MELBOURNE, August 2fa. Mutilated in a shocking manner, the body of Archie Mouat, aged nine and abalf years, who disappeared from Springvale on Saturday, was found by his mother, who had assisted in the search tor the boy. In company with Ids brother Ivan, Archie set out to gather gum leaves in the Springvale Cemetery. After proceeding some distance Archie said ho felt tired, and would wait till his brother returned with the leaves. While the boys were talking a motor car drew up, and a man alighted and spoke to the boys. Ivan walked on. After he had covered a hundred yards he turned round, and ho saw Archie conversing with the man; but Ivan thought nothing of this at the time. When Ivan returned, in loss than 10 minutes, the motor car, and the stranger had all disappeared. Several hours later, when Archie failed to appear, Ivan told his mother of tho occurrence, and she reported it to the police. The body was found in the Dandenong Creek in about a foot of water. There were several bruises on tho legs and head The body was completely unclothed. The mother is the widow of a member of the AustraJian Imperial Force. The clothes of the dead boy were found in a boiler-house at the Sandown Racecourse, half a mile from the spot where tho body was found. It is believed that the body .was mutilated previous to death, and that the boy was drowned. The police are hampered in their investigations owing to the sit© of the tragedy being inundated to a depth of bft through heavy rains since. A curious feature is that the site where the- body was found and also the boilerhouse were examined on Sunday, and the searchers are positive that neither the body nor clothes were there then. THE POLICE THEORY. WORK OF MANIACAL PERVERT. NO CLUE TO PERPETRATOR. MELBOURNE, August 26. (Received August 26, at 10 p.m.) The police regard the Mouat murder as the work of a manical pervert. They state that the actual cause of death was strangulation or suffocation, which was probably effected before the body was mutilated. Apparently the child was first damped face downwards in a muddy pool. The mutilations, which consist of a large circular wound in the lower part of the stomach with a sharp instrument, would, however, have been sufficient in themselves to cause death. No clue has yet been discovered. SENSATIONAL ROBBERY. BANK HOLD-UP! IN DAYLIGHT. THIEVES SECURE LARGE SUM. MELBOURNE August 25. Another sensational daylight robbery occurred at the Essendon branch of the English, Scottish, and Australian Bank. After the closing hour (3 o’clock) a clerk named Dobson was making up his accounts when two masked men entered and covered him with a revolver. They bound and gagged him and secured £4OO in notes and escaped in a motor car which was waiting outside. A girl who had previously noticed the men hanging round in the vicinity saw them rush out. She went to the door of the bank and found it locked, and through the keyhole she Jsaw Dobson bound. When help came it was discovered that he was so tightly trussed that the ropes had cut into his flesh, and that he was almost suffocated by a gag. TEN THOUSAND THEFTS. FEW CONVICTIONS RESULT. MELBOURNE, August 26. Ten thousand and eight thefts have been reported in Melbourne during the last, eight weeks. The stolen property is valued at.£15,000; but few arrests have been made, and none of those arrested have been convicted.