Mornington Peninsula murders: Sharpe family, Luke Batty, Daniel Valerio
Some of the most sickening crimes in Australia have taken place in this holiday playground. Disturbing content.
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The most recent police statistics gave the Mornington Peninsula the unenviable title of Melbourne’s murder capital for 2020.
Regrettably it’s not the first time the region has been the scene of shocking and senseless killings that rocked the nation.
We take a look back at a series of chilling crimes from the “vicious and sadistic” bashing of a 14 year old girl in Mount Martha in 1953 to the grim reaper style slaying of a Hastings man in 2019.
Haunting cold case
Shirley May, 14, was abducted from a Melbourne station after setting out from her Reservoir home on September 12, 1953 to attend at party in Richmond.
It’s believed her killer bludgeoned the young girl to death with a lump of concrete and left her mutilated body on a Mount Martha driveway.
Her foster mother raised the alarm after the young teen failed to arrive home from the party.
But Ms Collins never reached the gathering.
A friend waiting for her at North Richmond station did not know the macabre reason she never arrived.
The investigation which followed the discovery of her body was described as “one of the largest and most intensive manhunts in the history” at the time.
Veteran Victoria Police homicide Detective Ron Iddles told the Herald Sun in 2017 that Ms Collins’ unsolved murder “kept him up at night”.
Cold case unit homicide detectives relaunched the investigation in 2012 after a suspect’s former carer handed over written notes she took from an elderly man detailing the deaths of Ms Collins and two other women.
In 2019, 25 policing, criminology and clinical psychology students led by Swinburne Forensic Archaeologist and Criminologist Dr Louise Steding examined case notes and autopsy reports in the hope of reopening of the case.
The revisited the scene of the body find, conducted re-enactments and interviewed people, including those who knew Ms Collins.
Frankston Theatre Group actors performed the re-enactment based on the exact transcripts of the original inquest.
Little boy lost
Images of the bruised little face of defenceless toddler Daniel Valerio are impossible to forget.
The two-year-old Rosebud West boy was savagely beaten and tortured for months by his stepfather Paul Leslie Aiton.
Aiton eventually killed Daniel in 1990 because he wouldn’t stop crying.
His death led to the introduction of mandatory reporting laws that required health workers, doctors, maternal nurses, midwives, teachers, principals and police to make reports to child protective services if they formed a reasonable belief that a child was being physically or sexually abused.
As the judge who sentenced Aiton to a 22-year term, Justice Philip Cummins, observed: “Daniel would be alive today if there had been mandatory reporting.’’
The shocking case continued to outrage the community, when Aiton was allowed to marry and buy a house with his bride Linda while still in prison.
A Herald Sun investigation revealed Aiton has been allowed four hour conjugal visits in a special unit at Marngoneet prison in Lara.
Aiton was paroled in 2011 after serving a minimum 18 years of a 22-year sentence for the brutal murder.
The Baillieu government had opposed Aiton’s release but could not reverse a decision by the Adult Parole Board.
Innocence crushed
Zipping along a quiet Rosebud street on her pink bike Sheree Beasly stood no chance against the evil intentions of paedophile Robert Arthur Selby Lowe.
The salesman and avid churchgoer snatched the little girl from the street in 1991 and bundled her into his car.
He sexually assaulted his victim and dumped her dead body he dumped in a concrete drain along Mornington-Flinders Rd, Red Hill
It was four months before her decomposing corpse was found.
“I would give my life to have her back,” her anguished mother, Kerri Greenhill, said at the time. “Take me instead … she was only six.”
Lowe was sentenced to life with no chance of parole.
“Her final resting place was a cold concrete cylindrical drain, 30cm wide,” Supreme Court judge Justice Philip Cummins said.
“What you did was every child’s fear and every parent’s nightmare … You wove a tangled web around yourself which eventually captured you.”
Sheree’s memory was honoured with a 2015 vigil at her grave at the Mornington Cemetery in Mt Martha.
The memorial was arranged by Karen Willis after Sheree’s mother put out a call for someone to place flowers at the grave on Facebook.
Ms Greenhill now lives in South Australia and was unable to attend her daughter’s grave.
The Mornington Monster
On April 23, 2004 John Sharpe used a speargun to kill his pregnant wife Anna Kemp, 41, as she slept.
He buried her in a shallow grave in the backyard of the Prince Street home the family shared.
Four days later he used the same weapon to murder his 20-month-old daughter Gracie, killing her only to help perpetuate his story that his wife had left him for another man and taken their child with her.
Sharpe then exhumed Anna’s body, dismembered it with a chainsaw and dumped her and Gracie at a local tip.
If those vile crimes weren’t shocking enough Sharpe then shed crocodile tears while making public pleas for help to find his family.
Investigators later discovered he had used his wife’s ATM card at a bank in the southeastern suburbs and sent bogus emails to her mother in New Zealand to maintain the facade she was alive.
Several months later Sharpe was arrested and sentenced to two consecutive terms of life imprisonment.
Sharpe could offer no real justification for his evil acts.
Instead he blamed his wife’s “hot and cold” personality and how she would “wear the pants”.
He said he went on to kill his daughter out of “irrational bloody madness”.
Death that sparked crusade
The murder of Luke Batty at Tyabb Cricket Club on February 12, 2014, by his angry and violent father shocked Australia.
The 11-year-old boy was killed by Greg Anderson who turned up to his son’s training session with a cricket bat, knife and the intent to kill.
Anderson was shot by police about 25 minutes later when he lunged with a knife at an officer.
He was flown to The Alfred hospital and pronounced dead at 1.25am after emergency surgery failed to save him.
The murder shocked all, particularly after it was revealed the courts, police and child protection authorities had been made aware of Anderson’s violent tendencies.
“I’m in shock and disbelief,” Luke’s mum, Rosie Batty, said.
“I’m the victim of family violence and if anything comes out of this, I want it to be a lesson to everybody.”
In the years since, Ms Batty has spearheaded a drive to combat family violence.
She was named Australian of the Year in 2015 and played a key role in the establishment of the Royal Commission into Family Violence and was at Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s side as he announced a $100 million domestic violence package.
Ms Batty also launched the Luke Batty Foundation and the Never Alone campaign to support women and children affected by family violence.
In 2018 she stepped away from her public role.
“I realise that I can’t keep going at this pace forever. It is unsustainable and I am tired. I now need to prioritise my self-care and recognise my limitations – advice that has been given to me by trusted friends for some time,” she said.
“I have spoken at hundreds of speaking events across the country and overseas, and campaigned extensively while crisscrossing the nation.
“Now I need time to myself. Time to mourn and remember Luke, the centre of my world. Time to spend at home with my beautiful animals that continue to comfort me in ways that only four legged companions can.”
Hastings horror
A peaceful laneway with a colourful mural featuring a rainbow, leprechauns and shamrocks is where Dermot O’Toole’s family go to honour his memory.
The Hastings jeweller was murdered in 2013 by a gutless killer high on ice who burst into the shop he ran with wife Bridget.
Mr O’Toole, 64, died while trying to protect his wife of more than 40 years.
Perry had a shocking criminal history and was on parole when he murdered Mr O’Toole.
His death rocked the tight knit Hastings community and in 2015 the Western Port Chamber of Commerce and Industry campaigned for a lane off High St to be named O’Toole Walk.
The chamber worked with Mr O’Toole’s family and local artists to create the mural.
It aimed to become a place for people to quietly reflect and appreciate loved ones.
Perry was sentenced to a minimum 23-year prison term for the murder of Mr O’Toole.
Findings from a coronial inquest into Mr O’Toole’s death called for Corrections Victoria and the Adult Parole Board to be given “coercive powers” to obtain offenders’ medical and health records, and to conduct random drug tests on parolees
In January 2019 Perry teamed up with another notorious killer to carry out a vicious jailhouse assault within a maximum security protection unit.
Perry and double murderer Zdravko “Frank” Babic used shivs to repeatedly stab a rival inmate at Port Phillip Prison.
The victim spent days in hospital where he was treated for wounds to his upper body.
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Grim reaper killing
Troy Anthony Taylor had lived next door to Michael “Willy” Wilson for 18 years before killing him with half a pair of garden shears.
Taylor pleaded guilty to manslaughter in early 2021 over the 2019 attack in Salmon Street, Hastings.
Taylor admitted to the Supreme Court that he stabbed Mr Wilson with the garden shears.
But he said he feared for his own safety at the time.
He said he heard the Mr Wilson arguing with his wife Tracey and Mr Wilson’s wife Kim Scott while he was lying in bed.
“I thought, ‘here we go again’,” he said.
He then heard his wife being threatened by Mr Wilson, he said.
He grabbed the half-pair of shears and went outside to find his wife screaming with fear and in a headlock, he said.
He said Mr Wilson had a knife and that he stabbed Mr Wilson as a “reflex action” when his opponent went for his stomach with the knife.
“I’m pretty upset about the fact that I’ve taken someone’s life,” he said.
“It’s ruined not only (his) family, it’s ruined my family – it’s ruined two really nice families.
“I can’t give Mr Wilson back his life but I am very sorry that his life was taken.”