Masa Vukotic’s murderer Sean Price laughs, apologises in chaotic court hearing
UPDATE: AUTHORITIES warned Sean Price was a high risk of hurting someone the day he was released from jail, as the killer’s sick plans for a Moomba killing spree were revealed in court.
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UPDATE: A DOCTOR warned Sean Price was a high risk of violent offending the day he was released from jail, as the killer’s sick plans for a Moomba killing spree were revealed in court.
Corrections staff, doctors and psychiatrists repeatedly warned authorities Price was likely to hurt people if he was not properly supervised.
But the killer was released back into the community after being deemed too much of a risk to staff at a village-style complex for sex offenders.
Price brutally murdered teenager Masa Vukotic in March as she walked through a Doncaster park.
He later raped a woman before handing himself over to his Corrections case worker.
The Supreme Court heard the Adult Parole Board allowed Price back into the community five months before he attacked and killed the 17-year old.
Crown prosecutor Michele Williams, QC, struggled to explain why.
“It’s alarming, but the authorities maybe had no other choice. I don’t know. I don’t speak for the authorities and those who released him, but his sentence had expired. He was released into the community,’’ she said.
The court heard an assessment on October 7, 2014 — the day of his release from jail — found him to have “an extremely high risk of violence and sexual offending in the medium to long term”.
“That’s the day he’s released,” Ms Williams said.
Justice Lex Lasry expressed disbelief that Price was allowed to walk free.
“It’s a matter of significant public interest as to how that happened,” he said.
Corrections staff tasked with monitoring Price reported he would regularly present as “paranoid, tangential and misogamist, often becoming aggressive when speaking about women’’.
After murdering Ms Vukotic, Price told a doctor “society needs a devil”.
Price planned Moomba massacre
SEAN Price told doctors he planned to go on a Moomba killing spree when the city was filled with families, a court has heard.
Expert after expert warned authorities that Price was dangerous, even after he was released from prison back into the community on a supervision order, his Supreme Court plea hearing has been told.
Months after butchering teenager Masa Vukotic in a Doncaster Park, Price pondered the evil he may have got away with had he not been caught.
He told a doctor of his insidious plan to go on a killing spree in the city, attacking people over the busy Moomba period.
He planned to kill all the way up to April Fool’s Day, which he thought would be a bit of a laugh.
It was his “mission”, he said.
“He was preoccupied with the mission to kill over the Moomba period (and) stated that he was dressed up and ready to go and kill.
“It would have been a good time, like the joker,” Prosecutor Michele Williams told the court.
Lock him up for life: prosecutors
Price called on Justice Lasry to provide him with a non-parole period, arguing that jailing him for life was not the answer.
“Will it help protect the community?” he said.
Earlier, Ms Williams called on Justice Lasry to lock Price up for life.
“This man is a danger,’’ she said. “He should never be released.’’
Price today backflipped on a request not to be provided any discount on his sentence due to mental illness, telling the court he was schizophrenic and not an evil man.
“I can never cure this,’’ he said. “Once diagnosed, you are set for life.’’
The court heard while doctors had repeatedly asked Price to take his medication and attend treatment, he had defiantly refused to comply.
“I have refused medication,’’ Price admitted.
“I don’t like it. It hurts … it’s severely restrictive. You dribble. You shuffle. It’s torture.’’
Price argued the kind of treatment he required was not available to him outside of prison.
“If it was just a principle of locking up, I wonder if that is the answer,’’ he said.
Price acknowledged he was looking at a significant jail term for his shocking crimes, which included rape and murder.
“At the end of the day my actions are going to drown out any plea on my behalf,’’ he said.
“I am guilty of these charges and I deserve to be punished badly.’’
But he claimed a life sentence would not rehabilitate him.
“Every expert has indicated there is something wrong with me up top,’’ he said.
“I don’t think that over a long time I can’t be rehabilitated … It’s a long time I’m expecting your honour.’’
Earlier in the hearing, the court heard Price had devised a mission to kill a month before his two-day rampage, which saw him commit murder, rape and robbery.
Before being sacked, Ms Fox said her client wanted to kill “a lot of people’’ to highlight injustices in the prison system, where he had spent most of his 31 years.
Price told police the victim needed to be from a wealthy neighbourhood in order to gain an “amplified reaction” from the public.
Crime Victims Support Association president Noel McNamara said given Price’s criminal history, it was “unbelievable” he was ever released.
As a serious sexual offender, Price had been placed on a 10-year supervision order in May 2012, following his release after a long stint at the Thomas Embling forensic hospital for stalking, rape and making threats to kill.
Months later he smashed cars belonging to staff.
But a County Court appeal ruling cut to 10 months a 24-month non-parole term, on a three-year, eight-month sentence.
Staff and other inmates at the Corella Place village-style complex for sex offenders near Ararat were terrified of Price’s uncontrollable rages, and his behaviour generated deep concern about what he might do when released, raising questions about why he was freed in October last year.
But for his successful appeal, Price would have been in jail at the time of the murder.
When he killed Ms Vukotic he was free on bail on three charges of making threats to kill a prison guard.
Victims of Crime Commissioner Greg Davies said life in jail was the only way to protect the community from such vultures.
“At some stage, someone has to stand up and say, you have lost your right to be walking among us and you must spend the rest of your life in prison,” he said.