Sean Christian Price: Inside the mind of madman who killed Masa Vukotic
AUTHORITIES knew Sean Christian Price shouldn’t be on the streets. Now, once secret detail reveals what drove him to kill schoolgirl Masa Vukotic and attack others.
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MASA Vukotic was in the wrong place at the wrong time. The victim of a madman with a long and violent history — a madman who should not have been on the streets.
The 17-year-old Doncaster schoolgirl was one of 10 women attacked by Sean Christian Price.
The other nine victims must have all wondered, at some point since March 17 this year, why they had escaped Price’s most brutal moment of madness.
Their attacks were all as equally unprovoked and savage, but why had the evil that bubbled away inside him never fully erupted until that fatal day he ended Masa’s life?
For years, some of Victoria’s most brilliant medical minds tried to work out just what was wrong with Sean Christian Price.
Ultimately, they all agreed on one thing: he was not safe to be on the streets.
He posed a risk to the community — particularly females — was impulsive and unpredictable, and would certainly strike again.
This week the Herald Sun was granted unprecedented access to usually restricted material that gives a disturbing insight inside the mind of a madman.
After confessing to a string of attacks on women between 2002 and 2003, aged just 18, Price was admitted to a psychiatric hospital and diagnosed as being acutely psychotic.
He had dabbled with marijuana and amphetamines in his late teens, and about that time had started suffering from the onset of schizophrenia.
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At least one doctor believes that as well as having a family history of mental illness, Price may have been born suffering hypoxic brain damage.
Little is known about Price’s childhood, but it appears to have been far from happy. His parents separated when he was about 5, and it’s believed he was sexually and physically abused by various members of his family.
He struggled at school, had a turbulent relationship with his mother, and often ran away from the NSW home he shared with her.
As he grew older life became even more unstable. There were stints in care and trips to Melbourne to stay with his dad.
By the time he was 17, Price was experiencing psychotic symptoms including auditory hallucinations and bizarre religious and grandiose preoccupations. His behaviour became increasingly disturbing until he attacked for the first time.
A 21-year-old video store attendant was victim No.1 in an impulsive attack that became Price’s modus operandi.
There never seemed to be any planning or thought behind the assaults — they were opportunistic, brazen and became increasingly violent.
In one attack, Price followed a young mother and her two children home from a shopping centre, forced his way inside her home, raped her and threatened to kill the kids. The woman’s husband came home, interrupting the assault. He was also attacked.
As he did after killing Masa, Price handed himself into police. Doctors said he was so disgusted by his conduct that surrendering was the only way he knew to end it.
He was assessed as having underlying personality difficulties and an obsessive interest in women’s underwear.
Jailed for eight years and two months, he was paroled after five-and-a-half years. But things did not go well.
During a session with a female psychologist he savagely attacked her. He was locked up again, ordered to complete his original sentence, and given extra time for his parole assault.
With his prison term coming to an end, worried authorities moved to protect the community by applying to have Price placed on an extended supervision order.
Introduced in mid-2005, ESOs are imposed on our most dangerous sexual predators, those who carry such a high risk of re-offending that even after completing a prison term it is not safe to leave them to their own devices.
Tough restrictions prevent the details of those on ESOs being made public, but County Court Judge Michael McInerney this week ruled it was in the public interest for an exception to be made.
During a two-day application in 2012, Price — representing himself — opposed moves to place him on the order arguing he knew himself “better than these psychologists or experts say they know me”.
His biggest concern was being sent to Corella Place, Victoria’s Village of the Damned, a residential facility for our worst sex pests.
He expressed confidence he would not reoffend and feared going to Corella Place would prove to be a bad influence.
Doctors — a psychiatrist, neuropsychologist and a psychologist — all disagreed.
Price had a longstanding and untreated serious psychiatric disorder, possible deviant sexual arousal, and had experienced an escalation of aggression.
More worrying was his failure to reintegrate into the community while on parole.
He had failed the most basic test.
Price almost certainly suffered from schizophrenia, they said, but with his refusal to engage in psychological treatment or take medication, there was little that could be done.
At best he posed a moderate to high risk of reoffending, a risk that wouldn’t reduce for at least three years.
At worst, if his mental health deteriorated, Price posed an imminent risk to the community.
No one ever mentioned killing, but a “blitz-type” impulsive attack on women was a major concern.
One doctor’s conservative estimate was that Price would require treatment for anywhere between five and 10 years.
Judge Roy Punshon agreed, placing Price on one the most restrictive ESOs in Victorian history, and ordering he reside at Corella Place.
It was his worst nightmare.
Price didn’t adapt well. Inside, he felt victimised, bullied and struggled to deal with authority.
He didn’t like his mail being opened, and perceived he was being unfairly targeted.
He had been spending up to two hours a day in the gym, his only outlet, but snapped when guards stopped his access.
He reached breaking point and staged a violent rampage of destruction, pelting officers with rocks and smashing up their cars.
He was jailed again, originally for three years, but appealed and was resentenced to 10 months because of medical evidence.
Before being marched to prison, Judge Lisa Hannan warned Price to start trying to help himself before it was too late.
“There are only two sorts of people that go to jail,” Judge Hannan told him. “Those that think they are going to beat the system and those that try their best to co-operate with it. I really do encourage you to get what you can out of jail, and I mean it in this sense.
“Education, moderation, because these are the only things that are ultimately going to help you. I take it that what you will seek somewhere down the track is to have the supervision order change so you don’t have to reside at Corella Place. You are going to have to do a lof of work to get to that point, so I encourage you to start doing the work whilst you are in custody.”
Price must have taken her advice on board, because that’s exactly what happened just over a year later with the blessing of the Adult Parole Board, who under the conditions of his order had the power to release him from Corella Place.
The APB said this week it had considered a detailed report and recommendation from Corrections Victoria, and Judge Punshon’s reasons for making the supervision order.
In those he had warned that “Price “will pose an unacceptable risk, as defined, for at least 10 years”.
Tragically, he was proved right.
Price, 31, stabbed Masa Vukotic 49 times after dragging her into some bushes in a park near her Doncaster home on March 17.
Two days later he raped another woman, telling police he wanted “to get his rocks off” one more time because he knew he’d be going to prison. Just like before, he then handed himself in to police.
Sean Christian Price should never have been left alone. Judge Punshon knew it, doctors knew it, authorities knew it.
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