Relationship Break up Prompts Murder

Accused killer 'asked for car, clothes'

February 19, 2009, 12:35 pm

A man accused of gunning down his one-time girlfriend asked a friend for fresh clothes and a loan of a car after the shooting, a Melbourne court has been told.

Leigh Robinson, 60, of Pearcedale, has been charged with murdering 33-year-old mother of two Tracey Greenbury on April 28 last year.

The court earlier heard Ms Greenbury huddled in fear on a neighbour's doorstep as the accused pointed a gun at her.

Ms Greenbury fell into the Frankston house and crawled along the floor as the door was opened, but died after she was shot by the man in the doorway.

Robinson's committal hearing on Thursday was told he had called his friend of over 20 years, William Paterson, and told him there had been a shooting.

Mr Paterson said Robinson asked to borrow a car and later requested some clothes which he arranged for him.

Mr Paterson said he learned that night Tracey, who he had known as Robinson's girlfriend, had been shot dead.

He said shortly after learning that fact Robinson called him and Mr Paterson told him "she's gone".

"He was just sort of stuttering and hesitating," Mr Paterson said.

Mr Paterson said Robinson and Ms Greenbury had been in a relationship, but it appeared to fall apart about two weeks before the shooting.

He said Mr Robinson had said it was over and appeared upset by the breakup.

The pre-trial hearing in Melbourne Magistrates' Court continues.

From News.com.au 30th April 2008

THE man believed to have shot dead Frankston mother Tracey Greenbury is a convicted killer who was sentenced to death in 1968 for the brutal stabbing murder of his former girlfriend.

Leigh Robinson, 60, is on the run after allegedly blasting Ms Greenbury to death with a shotgun on Monday as she ran from her house in a desperate attempt to escape him.

Police believe he is still armed and have urged people not to approach him.

As the manhunt widened yesterday, Ms Greenbury's parents spoke of how they had feared for their daughter's safety in the weeks leading to her murder.

Ms Greenbury, 33, who had only begun seeing Robinson in the past few months, told her parents two weeks ago that he had held her hostage in a caravan and held a gun to her head, threatening to kill her.

Max Greenbury said his daughter had tried to end her relationship with Robinson after discovering his criminal history, but was terrified of him.

"She was so frightened and was convinced he was going to come back. She told me, 'Dad, I don't want to die, I am too young'," Mr Greenbury said.

Robinson has a history of crime and violence dating back to the 1960s. He spent 15 years in prison after he stabbed to death 17-year-old Valerie Ethel Dunn in the kitchen of her Chadstone home in June 1968.

Pentridge Prison psychiatrist Alan Bartholomew told a committal hearing later that year that Robinson, then aged 20, was an "odd" character. "He told me he was having dreams that he would assassinate several people," Dr Bartholomew told the court.

Legendary Melbourne criminal barrister Frank Galbally, who represented Robinson at the committal, also told the court: "He dreamed he would kill this girl and has since had dreams of killing someone else."

At Robinson's trial, evidence was given that he stabbed Ms Dunn 16 times with a carving knife after she refused to go out with him. He had also stabbed and wounded a youth who intervened to help Ms Dunn.

On 28 November, 1968, Robinson was sentenced to hang for Ms Dunn's murder, but five months later his sentence was commuted to 30 years in prison, with a minimum of 20.

For this Robinson may owe something to the legacy of Ronald Ryan, who in 1967 became the last man to be hanged in Australia. After a massive public campaign to save Ryan, the death penalty was never used again and was formally abolished in Victoria by the Hamer government in 1975.

Having avoided execution, Robinson served 15 years in Pentridge, where he is believed to have been a quiet prisoner, spending much time lifting weights and participating in drama and debating before his release in 1983.

In 1987, in an interview with The Age, he spoke chillingly of how easy it was to murder someone. "The mention of murder strikes awe into people, regardless of what the circumstances might have been," he said.

"It stirs something in people. People say, 'You mightn't have wanted to, but you've done the ultimate.' But anyone could be in the same situation. It's sometimes only a hair's breadth away.

"Under the terms of our law, murder is a very fine line. It's the one crime that, because of its nature, is so nip and tuck. Armed robbery, you've got to have an intention of some sort. It's the spontaneity."

Robinson, who was then in a de facto relationship with a mother of five, said his time in prison had taught him the value of living a quiet life. "I've been in prison and I've been there for a long time, but that's all past," he said. "I'm not going to make any earth-shattering pronouncements. I'm just going to live an ordinary life. When we're 60, (my partner and I) are going to get married, when all the kids are off our hands."

But despite his stated wish for the "ordinary life", Robinson did not stay out of trouble for too long. In 1991 he was jailed for two years for burglary and handling stolen goods, despite receiving a character reference from television actor Gil Tucker, who played the gormless Constable Roy Baker in Cop Shop.

It is believed Robinson has also done time for rape and was released only five years ago.

Robinson has spent some of his time out of jail working as a truck driver, and until this week was driving for a subcontractor in Pearcedale, about 10 kilometres from where he allegedly shot Ms Greenbury.

At the time he allegedly killed Ms Greenbury, Robinson was living in a caravan on the Pearcedale property of his boss.

When The Age went to the property yesterday, the trucking company owner refused to comment on Robinson, saying only that he would never have suspected he was capable of killing.

Robinson fled the scene of Monday's killing in a silver Holden Commodore, but later switched to a white Mazda utility with a canopy, registration ETM 150. The Commodore was found early yesterday and four associates of Robinson were later questioned by police.

Police have come under fire for refusing to release Robinson's name or description until last night. Inspector Steve Clarke, head of the homicide squad, said police had to balance the public's right to know with the need not to prejudice any future trial.

Ms Greenbury's children, Harley, 13, and Jamie-Lee, 8, returned to their home yesterday for the first time since their mother was murdered.

Comforted by relatives, they removed some personal items, including a teddy bear.

John Patrick O'Kane Perth WA Murders baby son

January 2009 and John O'Kane was arrested for the murder of his 4 month old baby son Zach. He murdered the baby and then left his tiny little body in his car for 3 days before burying him in a shallow grave at Collie WA.

The 40 year old truck driver is currently on remand.










http://www.news.com.au/perthnow/story/0,21598,24894535-948,00.html

http://www.abc.net.au/worldtoday/content/2005/s1393986.htm

Family murder-suicides about control, social worker says	PRINT FRIENDLY	EMAIL STORY
The World Today - Thursday, 16 June , 2005  12:47:39 Reporter: David Weber ELEANOR HALL: A Perth social worker has been delving into the emotional area of family murder suicides to try to find out why they happen. In a new book being launched today, Carolyn Harris Johnson, investigates seven cases in which where a man murders his children and commits suicide after a relationship breakdown. Ms Johnson says the ultimate act of revenge is often unexpected because the warning signs have been missed.  David Weber reports from Perth that the Chief Judge of the Western Australian Family Court will launch the book this afternoon. DAVID WEBER: Carolyn Harris Johnson says she found that in all the cases, domestic violence was under-reported. She says any threats to harm a partner or the children need to be taken very seriously. CAROLYN HARRIS JOHNSON: It certainly was under-reported and minimised where it was reported, even to the point where I was interviewing women, and they'd say initially there was no domestic violence, and then they'd go on to give me accounts of quite horrific examples of stalking, violence and threats. DAVID WEBER: There were threats before murders were carried out then? CAROLYN HARRIS JOHNSON: Certainly. There were threats to harm the woman, threats to kill her. Threats to kill the children and also suicidal threats by the perpetrator.  DAVID WEBER: Ms Johnson says the threats to kill or harm came way before the separation occurred. She found that the men believed that the family was theirs to control. CAROLYN HARRIS JOHNSON: He wasn't going to let her leave and I think the offences have a lot more to do with proprietary attitude of the males towards their families and the need to control them, than it has to do with anything else.  At the same time, when women start to talk to men about their dissatisfaction with a relationship and perhaps try to get the man to go to counselling to address the issues, it's often very hard for women to get men to do that. DAVID WEBER: The whole thing is about a loss of control really, and this is like the final act of control in a way? CAROLYN HARRIS JOHNSON: Absolutely. But I think that what we must remember is the incidence of this kind of familicide is actually very low, and even though the cases are shocking, and involve multiple loss of life, thankfully they don't occur too often. DAVID WEBER: The research suggests that the woman who's been left behind never gets over the trauma. One of the ways that survivors cope is to help others who find themselves in a similar kind of situation.  Carolyn Harris Johnson says there's also a long-term impact on the extended family. CAROLYN HARRIS JOHNSON: For us as adults, it's very hard to understand what would motivate a parent to kill a child. But for a child it's even harder and I've heard of cases where in the extended family, there's been marital separations and the women in that family have just been quite unable to allow their kids to go and have access to their father, even though that child's father might have been quite loving and never made any threats of any kind.  DAVID WEBER: Do men do this more than women? CAROLYN HARRIS JOHNSON: Men commit familicide following separation much, much more frequently than women. There's very few cases of that recorded anywhere.  DAVID WEBER: It would seem that Ms Johnson's research dispels two myths about familicide.  One is that familicide is caused by a legal dispute about custody. Ms Johnson found that not all the cases had been to the Family Court, and there was only one where custody was in dispute. And she found a lack of contact wasn't a causing factor because the men were using their access to the children to kill them.  She believes she's also countered another widely held view. CAROLYN HARRIS JOHNSON: One of the other myths is that familicide is caused by love, that the extreme love the father feels for the children means that he can't bear to be separated from them, and that somehow he kills them out of that kind of emotional response. But that really doesn't make a lot of sense to me, and the research doesn't really bear that out either. ELEANOR HALL: Social worker Carolyn Harris Johnson speaking to David Weber in Perth about her new book, Come With Daddy.

Abusive men fear looking weak

Abusive men fear looking weak

Monday, 09 February 2009

Queensland University of Technology The study found that many abusive men are afraid to appear weak. Image: iStockphoto Societal power structures and some pop culture stereotypes which lead some men to fear appearing weak are often behind intimate spousal abuse, a new study has found. Clare Murphy of QUT's Faculty of Law has, as part of her PhD research into men's intimate partner abuse and control, interviewed 16 men who have been physically, emotionally, sexually or financially controlling of a live-in female partner and participated in programs to stop abuse. Her research found many men who had been abusive thought that displaying behaviours such as showing empathy and love meant they would be seen as less masculine by other men. "Most of the men I interviewed were not keen to experience the lack of acceptance and humiliation that goes along with being low on the masculine hierarchy," said Ms Murphy. "This then led them to struggle their way up the ladder to gain acceptance from other men. "Many of the men I interviewed learned at school that to gain acceptance and respect they had to use physical violence, verbal abuse and psychological bullying; teachers and sports coaches often turned a blind eye to these abusive and controlling practices." She said even men who wanted a loving, non-abusive relationship with a woman may suppress loving and caring practices to avoid being ostracized by other men. Ms Murphy has spent two years facilitating women's programs at Hamilton Abuse Intervention Project in New Zealand, researching how women coped with psychological abuse. "I saw a small number of violent men, and began to recognize complexities and contradictions that were not part of popular notions about domestic violence," she said. "I wanted to investigate these nuances further and I was driven to understand the perspectives of those men who abuse and control their female partners." She defined spousal abuse as the use of a systematic pattern of wide ranging tactics used to establish and maintain power and control over a female partner. "Not all perpetrators use physical violence; rather they may use psychological abuse including mind games, degradation and violation of trust," said Ms Murphy. "They may sexually abuse their partner, control finances, prevent her from working, isolate her from family and friends and prevent her from getting any medical help she might need." Society tends to depict perpetrators of domestic violence as non-white, poor, young men, according to Ms Murphy, and if a white, middle-class man's violence makes the news, women are often investigated to see how they may have provoked the response. "Often men who do not fit the stereotypes do not define themselves as perpetrators," said Ms Murphy. "This decreases the possibility of seeking to change. "One study cites, for instance, a family court judge colluding with an upper middle class businessman during a custody battle; the businessman then went on to murder his wife." Ms Murphy said for intimate partner abuse to cease, changes had to occur in individuals and institutions that practise and condone hierarchical power and control regardless of context. "This includes those who denigrate homosexual men or women, education officials who do not reinforce school bullying policies, legal professionals who do not reinforce laws against elder abuse, TV sports comedy programs that favour misogynistic jokes and companies that record music that supports domestic violence."

Arthur Freeman, Melbourne throws his little girl off bridge.

Arthur Freeman threw his little girl over the Westgate Bridge in Melbourne seemingly in retaliation against his ex wife and their Family Court dispute. He stopped the car, unbuckled Dacey his 4 year old daughter and in front of her two brother 6 and 2, tossed her over the bridge to land 58 metres down in the Yarra River. She lived a few hours and died later with her mother by her side. He was later charged with murder and the photo above shows him snivelling in the company of police detectives.

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,27574,24978767-421,00.html

Simon Lowe in Sydney, Conman who raped his girlfriend.

Simon Lowe AKA Bonito Menteiro is an associate of Gordon Wood and a rapist who has a string of AVO's taken out by former girlfriends. When his latest girlfriend found out the conmans true identity, he raped her and assaulted her.







http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2009/02/07/1233423559139.html

Cameron Cook drove his wife off pier in Victoria

Ex-cop who drove wife off pier 'wanted to kill himself'

• February 6, 2009 - 4:06PM

Cameron Cook wanted to die. And he wanted to make sure his wife would witness it.

So he punched the woman he accused of having an affair, shackled her ankles, taped her mouth and bundled her into the back seat of his car.

After fastening her to a chain he'd secured around the front seat, he set off for Melbourne's Mordialloc pier.

When he got there, he planted his foot on the accelerator and drove off.

Sonia Cook would have died, prosecutors told a court on Friday, had a locked gate not stopped her husband from reaching the deep-water location he'd originally planned to use.

"The car would have sunk," Crown prosecutor Gavin Silbert SC told the Victorian Supreme Court. "We would've had a murder-suicide."

Instead, Cook ended up driving into relatively shallow water off the pier, and Ms Cook, despite her restraints, was able to free herself from the vehicle.

The 42-year-old Cheltenham man has pleaded guilty to the attempted murder of his wife in September 2007 after learning she was having an affair.

Mr Silbert told Friday's pre-sentence hearing that there was no evidence Cook felt any remorse for his actions.

But defence lawyer John Kelly said his client's actions were completely out of character, and Cook had not been coping with the breakdown of his marriage and family life.

He said Cook's aim had been to kill himself and for his wife to witness it.

"What happened on the 7th of September was utterly abhorrent and utterly atypical of him," Mr Kelly said.

"But he didn't know how to cope with what for him was an impending catastrophe.

"He just saw red for a couple of seconds."

In a statement Cook gave to police, which was read in court, he said: "I knew I was fked as soon as I hit her. In that instant I knew I had thrown away my life."

Cook has also pleaded guilty to reckless conduct endangering life and intentionally causing serious injury.

Friday's hearing was adjourned to a date to be fixed.

http://www.theage.com.au/national/excop-who-drove-wife-off-pier-wanted-to-kill-himself-20090206-7zp5.html