Stacey Tierney death probe to focus on out-of-hours activities at Dreams Gentlemen’s Club
A POLICE probe into the mysterious death of exotic dancer Stacey Tierney is set to focus on out-of-hours activities at the adult entertainment club where she worked.
Law & Order
Don't miss out on the headlines from Law & Order. Followed categories will be added to My News.
A POLICE probe into the mysterious death of exotic dancer Stacey Tierney is set to focus on out-of-hours activities at the adult entertainment club where she worked.
Dreams Gentlemen’s Club, on the corner of Elizabeth and Flinders streets, is suspected to have outlaw bikie connections.
It is believed associates with Ms Tierney on the night she died failed to call an ambulance for fear of a police investigation into club operations.
More: Exotic dancer found dead in CBD club
Homicide squad oversee probe into dancer’s death
The club’s general manager, Stephen Kyriacou, is a veteran adult club figure who police are expected to speak to about Ms Tierney’s death inside the CBD venue on or before December 19.
The Herald Sun is not suggesting Mr Kyriacou is involved in any way with Ms Tierney’s death or was present on the night in question.
It is also understood a part owner and director of the strip club has been contacted by authorities.
Detectives, who are awaiting a toxicology report, are piecing together what occurred before an emergency call was made about the 29-year-old UK national’s collapse hours after she died.
Numerous CCTV cameras cover the inside and the outside of the club.
But the Herald Sun has been told Ms Tierney was inside a private area, dubbed a “Fantasy Room’’.
Footage from inside the club will play a key part in the probe but it is unclear whether cameras are installed in this area.
There has also been doubt cast on whether those with Ms Tierney left the club before she was “discovered’’ and an ambulance called.
Ms Tierney’s family are understood to be deeply troubled by the “wall of silence’’ about the circumstances of her death.
They released a statement of condolence on Wednesday more than a fortnight after the incident.
The Herald Sun has been told the Tierney family suspect Ms Tierney may have been murdered.
Family have been told Ms Tierney had worked at Dreams on Saturday night, December 17, but had not returned to her Melbourne home.
A call was made to emergency services at 11.49am on Monday, almost 19 hours after the club shut on Sunday morning.
There are also concerns a potential crime scene was contaminated.
The identities of the men who were with the dancer on the day she died have not been publicly released.
It is believed, however, footage exists of those who were with Ms Tierney before and after she died.
A fellow dancer and friend had warned Ms Tierney not to work at Dreams but said she believed the money was too attractive.
She had worked at the adult entertainment bar for about five weeks
Mr Kyriacou, a former manager of King St strip club Spearmint Rhino, has not issued a comment.
The 40-year-old, who also runs North Melbourne gastro pub, is no stranger to controversy.
He was partying with Hells Angel Christopher Wayne Hudson the morning the outlaw bikie went on his violent rampage on June 18, 2007.
THE DEADLY DREAM OF A ‘BEAUTIFUL SOUL’ LURED BY QUICK CASH
STACEY Tierney would have celebrated her 30th birthday in 13 days. There would have been a party with the new friends she met on her Aussie adventure, bigger than the one she posted about on Instagram almost a year ago.
It was unthinkable a girl as fit and lively as Stacey would be found dead in an underground Melbourne strip club, opposite the landmark Flinders St station, just days before Christmas.
Only a select few in her home town of Manchester, England, knew about Stacey’s “night job’’.
Her death at Dreams Gentlemen’s Club was how her parents, Stephen and Michelle, found out about her exploits as an exotic dancer.
It is suspected she died while with several men inside the club after closing time.
Stacey had been a sun chaser for most of her three years in Australia, travelling and partying through the Outback and along the coastlines. Half a world away from home, she was surviving on her own.
Dance, her true passion, which she had studied, had never paid the bills. Instead, Stacey, as she had in Manchester, worked as a fitness instructor at gyms.
But Down Under, she walked straight into a world where gyms and strip clubs are often owned by the same people. For an attractive woman like Stacey, the adult entertainment industry was a licence to travel, party and earn a grand or two a week.
It is not so unusual for young women to turn to exotic dancing for quick money in a foreign country. They form friendships and have an endless holiday of sorts — dancing at night and sunbathing and sightseeing during the day.
Stacey had an end game, but in the short term had been attracted to the money. Not only did it pay for her travels — it was going to put her through nursing school.
The Christmas before last, Stacey had returned to England and reapplied for an Australian study visa.
Almost a year on, after working at several adult entertainment clubs in Melbourne and interstate, Stacey had asked co-workers about Dreams.
Dreams, on Elizabeth St, is a small-scale venue buried underground, beneath the CBD, once known as Hosies. Patrons pass under a glittering Vegas-style sign and walk down a flight of stairs into an area where there’s a bar, stage and booths.
There’s another small area known as a “fantasy room”. This is where it is believed Stacey died on either December 18 or early on December 19.
Although the cause of her death is not known, her family were drip-fed pieces of painful information about her final hours.
One post read: “From what I know ... she died where she worked in a nightclub called Dreams ... and was found on the Monday I dunno why it wasn’t called so many questions with no answers ...’’
Dreams is managed by Stephen Kyriacou, who is expected to be spoken to by police about the club he has run for a decade.
The Herald Sun is not suggesting Mr Kyriacou is involved in any way with Stacey’s death or was present on the night in question.
Mr Kyriacou is no stranger to controversy.
He was the manager of former King St strip club Spearmint Rhino, owned off the books by exiled Comanchero bikie Jay Malkoun.
The 40-year-old, who also runs a North Melbourne gastropub, was partying with Hells Angel Christopher Wayne Hudson the morning the outlaw bikie went on his violent rampage on June 18, 2007.
The pair had been at Spearmint Rhino before they entered a nightspot next door, Barcode, just four hours before Hudson became agitated and erupted.
Mr Kyriacou was receiving an “intimate’’ lap dance from one of his employees, Autumn Daly-Holt, when Hudson lifted her up by the hair.
Hudson, high on ice, would go on to assault Ms Daly-Holt before turning on his on-off lover, Kaera Douglas.
Ms Douglas would be bashed and shot as she attempted to escape him in a taxi on Queen St.
Two men who came to her rescue — backpacker Paul de Waard and lawyer Brendan Keilar — would also be shot.
Mr Keilar, shot three times, did not survive.
Mr Kyriacou gave evidence at Hudson’s Supreme Court hearing.
He would quickly move on to set up Dreams, while moonlighting as the founder and drummer of popular Kiss tribute band, KISSTROYER, playing the role of Peter Criss.
Stacey knew none of this when she asked a friend about working at Dreams.
Her mate warned her off it. “She asked me about it. She said ‘Did you like it?’,’’ the friend said. “I said, ‘Look, it was good money, but I thought it was a bit dodgy’.”
She told Stacey about belongings going missing and a bad vibe.
“Look, she went there. She was clearly attracted to the money and I don’t blame her,’’ she said.
“I told her not to ... but, at the end of the day, I told Stace she could do what she wanted.’’
The friend said they had clicked immediately, describing Stacey as a “beautiful soul’’.
Labelling the treatment of her friend “disgusting”, she said someone should have been looking out for Stacey and called an ambulance.
She recalled Stacey counselling other dancers — in an almost sisterly manner — on the dangers of taking illicit drugs.
“I know her and I know how streetwise she is,’’ she said. “She’s very socially intelligent. She’s very emotionally intelligent.’’
Stacey’s family and friends raised enough money within days to send her body home to the UK.
All they want now are answers.