Behind the vampire gigolo Shane Chartres-Abbott murder

THE murder of any gigolo vampire charged with rape is obviously going to attract headlines.

THE murder of any gigolo vampire charged with rape is obviously going to attract headlines.

But the 2003 killing of Shane Chartres-Abbott ended up attracting far more attention than the execution of any old blood-sucking male prostitute.

The rape committed by Chartres-Abbott was bizarre and involved a 30-year-old Thai woman who hired him to have sex with her in 2002. She was found naked, bloodied and unconscious in the shower of her Hotel Saville room in South Yarra.

The woman had been repeatedly raped, part of her tongue had been bitten out and she had teeth marks in her right thigh.

Chartres-Abbott, 28, had earlier told her he was a 200-year-old vampire who drank blood to stay young. As if that wasn't strange enough, Chartres-Abbott was on his way to the fifth day of his rape trial when he was shot dead by one of two men who ambushed him outside his Reservoir home.

The twists and turns in the Chartres-Abbott case haven't stopped since. It was allegations of leaking material about the Chartres-Abbott murder which resulted in corruption charges being laid against former Victoria Police assistant commissioner Noel Ashby and force media director Stephen Linnell.

Those same allegations, which included the claim that former detectives Peter Lalor and David Waters were tipped off they were suspects in the Chartres-Abbott murder, also resulted in Police Association boss Paul Mullet being charged with attempting to pervert the course of justice, perjury and misleading the Office of Police Integrity director.

All charges against Mr Mullett have since been dropped.

It was also the Chartres-Abbott case which prompted then deputy commissioner, now Chief Commissioner, Simon Overland to concede for the first time in 2007 that there was evidence of links between corrupt police, organised crime and Melbourne's gangland killings.

Police yesterday offered a $1 million reward for solving the Chartres-Abbott murder, and those who provide information on any of the murder suspects will also be eligible to apply for indemnities from prosecution and witness protection.

Those suspects include:

MARK Adrian Perry - missing drug dealer and former boyfriend of the Thai woman brutally raped by Chartres-Abbott.

PETER Lalor - the great-great-grandson of the famous Eureka Stockade hero of the same name and a former Victoria Police detective-sergeant who allegedly provided the hitman with Chartres-Abbott's address and an alibi for the killer on the day of the shooting.

DAVID Waters - the detective-sergeant allegedly present at meetings with Mr Lalor and the hitman when Chartres-Abbott's murder was discussed. EVANGELOS Goussis - a former kickboxing champion in jail after being convicted of the murders of underworld heavy Lewis Moran and gangland solicitor Zarah Garde-Wilson's boyfriend Lewis Caine.

AN old-style organised crime boss in his 60s who allegedly assisted in facilitating the alleged police involvement in the Chartres-Abbott murder.

THE son of a notorious Melbourne criminal who fled to Queensland with his family after his drug dealer uncle was tortured and murdered in Victoria in 1990.

Investigations into the 2003 Chartres-Abbott murder had stalled and it looked like remaining unsolved until a high-profile and prolific underworld assassin contacted the Purana gangland killing taskforce from inside prison in 2007 to confess to it even though he wasn't a suspect.

The hitman, whose name has been suppressed by the courts, was already serving a lengthy jail term over other underworld murders and had previously been involved in negotiating with police to get lesser sentences for himself.

His confession resulted in the formation of Taskforce Briars in 2007. Taskforce chief Steve Waddell yesterday said his detectives were still gathering evidence against several murder suspects in the Chartres-Abbott case.

"Our primary focus at this point is Mark Perry," he told the Herald Sun. "We have been spending a lot of time covertly trying to locate him, without success obviously.

"Hence we are now asking for help from the media and the public. If we find him we will charge him with the murder of Shane Chartres-Abbott. He is the principal in this murder."

Perry, 42, a convicted drug trafficker, slipped away from police surveillance during a trip to the Gold Coast in September 2007 and hasn't been seen since.

"He disappeared because he became aware that he was hot for this offence, and that there was a team of investigators looking for him," Det-Insp Waddell said.

Detectives hope the $1 million reward will flush out people who know where Perry is or how to contact him.

They allege Chartres-Abbott was murdered because Perry blamed himself that his former Thai girlfriend was raped and brutalised by Chartres-Abbott.

"He really was a mess emotionally about it and he was quite indiscreet about what he intended to do in respect of exacting some form of retribution, revenge," Det-Insp Waddell said.

"So he has offered a contract and he has had discussions with a number of groups of people about this particular murder. He has since told people it cost him $200,000."

Perry allegedly sought help in finding a hitman from an old family friend he had grown up with. That family friend is the son of a major Melbourne criminal and he fled to Queensland after the murder of his uncle.

THE family friend then allegedly contacted the hitman who eventually murdered Chartres-Abbott, and who later confessed to police. The hitman was a long-time associate of the family friend's father.

That hitman allegedly told the family friend he would do the job and then spoke to a major organised crime figure in Melbourne about arranging the Chartres-Abbott murder.

This organised crime figure, who is largely unknown outside the criminal world and who has operated under police radar for decades, allegedly has strong links with corrupt police.

Det-Insp Waddell believes this man's role was to assist in facilitating the alleged police involvement in the Chartres-Abbott murder, and that the man was also allegedly involved in discussing the killing with the actual shooter before the execution.

Ex-detectives Waters and Lalor were also allegedly present during discussions about organising the killing of Chartres-Abbott. It's alleged Mr Lalor, who recently retired from Victoria Police due to ill-health, provided the shooter with an alibi and Chartres-Abbott's address.