Melbourne crimes caught on camera: CBD stabbing, Clavells shooting, Ivanhoe carjacking
A gunpoint bank robbery, a daylight carjacking and a brutal CBD stabbing are among the wild Melbourne crimes caught on camera.
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The graphic nature of these wild crimes shocked Melbourne after the shocking incidents were captured on camera and played out in public.
A gunpoint bank robbery, a daylight carjacking and a brutal CBD stabbing are among the wild crimes to be captured and portrayed with explosive vision.
See the full list.
BRUTAL CBD STABBING
Ice-addled criminal Josh Beattie stabbed a disability pensioner in the face during an unprovoked attack in Melbourne’s CBD.
Beattie was sentenced in the County Court in November 2019 to a minimum five-year jail term after pleading guilty to recklessly causing serious injury.
The brutal attack was captured on CCTV.
Beattie’s “swift and brutal” attack came after he asked his victim, Matthew Wilson, for a cigarette just before 9.30pm on November 2, 2018.
Beattie sat next to Mr Wilson in the door of a Bourke St business but soon became agitated.
He stabbed Mr Wilson in the neck and stole his pension money, which was in his hat.
Beattie fled but returned, finished his cigarette and taunted Mr Wilson who was struggling in the doorway with massive blood loss.
Mr Wilson tried to get help from the many passers-by but eventually ran to a cafe after no one in the busy street came to his aid.
He was later taken to hospital for emergency surgery.
Beattie was jailed for a maximum seven years.
DEGRADING MASSAGE PARLOUR ROBBERY
Vile thug Paul Robinson menaced and assaulted two women during a brutal and degrading armed robbery at a Glen Waverley massage parlour.
Robinson was sentenced in the County Court in June 2020 to a minimum five-year jail term after pleading guilty to armed robbery, assault and making a threat to kill.
Robinson, together with two other men, stormed the Hampshire Rd “relaxation massage business” on August 12, 2019.
The entire robbery was captured on CCTV.
The thugs, who arrived in a stolen Lexus just after 3.30pm, menaced the parlour’s female owner and her younger female employee during the six-minute ordeal.
Robinson, armed with knuckledusters, another man armed with a meat-cleaver, and the third man repeatedly demanded cash.
The trio terrorised their victims and trashed the venue while they searched each room for cash and valuables.
Robinson prevented the owner from leaving the store, hit the woman’s face and ordered her to “shut the f*** up”, the court heard.
Robinson, a father, assaulted the woman again, dragged her along the floor then grabbed her around the neck and shoved her to the ground.
one of the men then dragged the woman by the neck and stomped on her leg, Judge Patricia Riddell said.
The third menace smashed a mirror over the frightened woman’s head which left her bleeding, trembling and screaming, the court heard.
Robinson told the woman to “shut the f**k up c***” then threatened to kill her.
He ordered his crony to “stab her, f***ing stab her now”.
Robinson grabbed two eggs from the woman’s bar fridge and smashed them over her.
Robinson punched the younger victim after she was ordered to kneel on the ground.
He touched her face and said: “you’re very cute aren’t you”.
The third menace then smashed a chair over her head.
The thugs fled with cash, bank cards, an iPhone and the owner’s driver’s licence.
Robinson was jailed for a maximum seven years and seven months.
BRAZEN MILK BAR ROBBERY
A Frankston milk bar owner was savagely attacked during a brutal armed robbery captured on CCTV.
Hampden Ave milk bar owner Jing Lin was kicked and threatened with a hammer by a thug who, along with an accomplice, stormed the front counter of her store.
“I was kicked, and they have hammer, they stole cigarettes and the cash register,” she said.
“I’m still frightened, my family is scared, this is not a safe suburb.
“Young people always steal, they have bad attitude towards us, they are very rude and racist.
“There are always people outside with, you know, needle in arm, they do bad things.”
She said a neighbour who witnessed the robbery was also frightened.
“He is scared, one day someone with gun threatened him at his home,” she said.
Ms Lin said she had since implemented “personal safety measures” to protect the shop and her family.
“What can we do? We can’t leave, this is our money for our family,” she said.
Two men arrived at the Hampden Ave milk bar about 6.30pm on Monday, March 4, 2019 in a stolen VW Golf driven by a third suspect.
Police said both men wore surgical gloves and covered their faces as they ran into the store and jumped the front counter.
One shovelled cigarettes into a garbage bag while the other fended off Ms Lin.
They trashed the store as they tried to force the cash register from the front counter.
The register crashed onto the floor and the suspects took a small amount of money before fleeing in the stolen car.
The men were later arrested and jailed.
TERRIFYING GUNPOINT BANK JOB
Masked gunman Peter Synan and his balaclava-clad associate robbed the Laverton Bendigo Bank leaving terrified staff and customers in their wake.
Career criminal Synan, who wore a “frightening” Guy Fawkes mask and wig, and Brendan Sanderson stormed the Aviation Rd branch just after 9am on December 21, 2017.
The violent pair ordered everyone to get down and yelled “give us all your money”, a court has heard.
Synan – armed with an imitation firearm – “took control” of staff and customers while Sanderson emptied drawers and stuffed cash into a bag.
Sanderson tried to kick-in a safe but failed so the pair fled in a stolen Nissan Pulsar with $10,300.
Sanderson later torched the getaway car.
CCTV footage of the robbery shows the victims’ terror as they were stalked by Synan.
A Bendigo Bank employee is seen reaching under her desk to trigger an alarm.
She reaches for her phone but backs off when Synan approaches her with his makeshift weapon.
The employee and the other victims later told police they didn’t know if the gun was fake.
Synan and Sanderson were arrested several weeks after the heist.
Synan, 56, who has multiple armed robbery priors, was jailed in December 2019 for a maximum 10 years and six months with a non-parole period of eight years.
Sanderson was jailed for a maximum nine years with a non-parole period of six years.
FRIGHTENING BROAD DAYLIGHT CARJACKING
Ice addict Patrick McMillan was caught on camera dragging a woman from her car at gunpoint after leading police on a high-speed chase through Melbourne’s northern suburbs.
The County Court heard after a four-week drug and alcohol bender in November 2017, McMillan, 34, had committed “vicious, cowardly and terrifying” crimes.
As the father of two led police on a chase in a stolen car, he “drove at a breathtaking 200km/h”, Judge Gregory Lyon said.
“Your driving was highly irresponsible and reckless …(these were) disgraceful acts of violence,” Judge Lyon said.
“Your driving exposed countless members of the public to your dangerous acts,” he said.
McMillan had also attacked an off-duty policeman, an “appalling act of assault by intimidation,” Judge Lyon said.
McMillan was sentenced to 14 years and 11 months’ jail, with a non-parole period of 10 years and 4 months.
THUG’S VISCOUS PUB ATTACK
Then rat-tailed thug Joel Diamond kicked a man’s head in “like a football” during a brutal pub attack in Melbourne’s west.
Diamond was handed a 14-month jail term in October 2014 for the brutal assault.
The court heard Diamond’s victim sustained a fractured skull, was put in an induced coma for nine days and suffered a brain injury following the 2013 assault which was captured on CCTV.
Disturbing footage captured from inside Werribee’s Commercial Hotel clearly shows Diamond take a running kick at the unsuspecting man’s head as he bends over to pick something up off the floor.
The 48-year old pub regular had been watching the races in the tavern’s sports bar when he was accused by Diamond’s brother of looking at Joel’s girlfriend.
Judge Cohen accepted Diamond’s attack was “opportunistic and spontaneous”.
But she condemned him for what she described as a callous, brutal and cowardly attack.
“You treated his head like a football,” she said.
“Your purpose was to take some action of retribution.”
COPS SHOOT BROTHERS AT CAMP SITE STAND-OFF
Dramatic footage from police body-worn cameras showed the moment officers shot two brothers in a violent showdown at a Murray River campsite.
The incident obviously didn’t occur in Melbourne but was wild enough to be included on the list.
Joshua and Joel Clavell refused to drop their weapons and surrender when officers surrounded the pair at Richardson Bend Camping Ground, Barnawartha North, on June 12, 2020.
“Put it down” and “drop it, mate”, the police members could repeatedly be heard saying as their guns were drawn on the siblings.
Joshua Clavell was a wanted man by counter-terrorism officers who had tracked him down to the remote campsite.
He had armed himself with a 30cm-long knife and Joel wielded a hatchet when they jumped from their car after ramming a police vehicle at speed.
Joel threatened to chop off the head of one of the officer’s, before challenging them to shoot him as he wanted to be “a martyr”.
He repeatedly called the police members “dogs” and “mutts”.
Both brothers were shot in the showdown, with prosecutor Kristie Churchill saying the police members were “in extreme fear for their lives”.
The footage was later played in the County Court.
Joshua was jailed for four years and eight months after pleading guilty to aggravated intentional exposure of a police officer to risk by driving and assault of an emergency worker.
Joel was jailed for 21 months after pleading guilty to multiple assaulting emergency worker charges and three counts of making threats to kill.
SPEARMINT RHINO BIKIE BRAWL
Bikie boss Mark Buddle threw the first punch in a wild strip club brawl captured on CCTV.
Comanchero kingpin Buddle was jailed for 15 months in May 2014 over his role in the violent stoush that left two men unconscious at the Spearmint Rhino strip club in King Street in the early hours of December 18, 2011.
County Court judge Rachelle Lewitan said it was submitted that instead of walking away from the brewing fight with a bunch of concreters, Buddle reacted when one man said: “F--- you, f--- your mother.”
“However, even if you were annoyed by the statement, it does not condone your behaviour,” Judge Lewitan said.
She said Buddle, returned to the labourers, who had been at a work Christmas party, shirtless and re-engaged in the physical dispute that started with a punch thrown by him, stomping on an unconscious man’s chest.
The judge said bikie David Gavelan also struck one concreter to the head with a bottle and stomped on his torso as he lay on the floor unconscious.
At least three men were injured in the fracas.
Judge Lewitan said CCTV footage and still photos from the club, a taxi and the Hilton Hotel identified Buddle, who has his surname tattooed across his chest.
Buddle pleaded guilty to array, intentionally causing injury and two counts of common law assault.
Buddle is currently on remand on major drugs charges.
HIGH-RISE HOTEL DELUGE
The moment a luxury Southbank hotel foyer is flooded and a panicked employee makes a run for the front door after a man turned on fire hydrants on 18 floors was captured on camera.
The video, from the foyer of the Experience Bella Hotel, which ice-addled bartender Bradley Vogt flooded during a drug-induced rampage, shows water seeping in from under a staircase door gradually increasing.
A woman, presumably an employee, can be seen on her mobile phoning for help but eventually gives up as the water continues to increase.
The amazing video was released as Vogt was sentenced in the County Court over the incident, which ended with an estimated $1.55 million damage bill and more than 300 people without a place to stay.
Judge Martine Marich, in sentencing Vogt to two years and 18 days’ jail and a two-year community corrections order, said she was satisfied he “caused extensive and pervasive loss and damage as a result of your actions”.
THE BIZARRE TRAMPOLINE HEIST
Blundering thieves stole a huge trampoline from a Waterways’ garden — despite the tiniest of getaway cars and a half-hour comedy of errors.
CCTV footage of the midnight heist shows the group made no attempt to dismantle the play equipment, using brute force and luck to push it over the fence.
The trio — two men and a woman — then wedge the 3.4m trampoline onto the top of a small hatchback car, realising they’ve covered the windscreen and jammed the doors shut.
The driver manages to prise open a door a little and squeeze himself in but the others are left to run behind the car.
The bizarre incident happened on February 10, 2019 and seems to have been an impromptu decision by the three thieves.
The crooks were driving along the street and stopped suddenly when they spotted the large springfree trampoline.
It took about 20 minutes for them to push the trampoline, valued at $2300, over the fence.
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