Gatwick hotel St Kilda rife with crime: Secret police dossier

A SECRET police dossier lifts the lid on St Kilda’s notorious Gatwick hotel, revealing it is rife with crime including rape, bomb threats, violence, drugs and robbery.

Police at The Gatwick private hotel. Photo taken on the 1st of January, 2015. Picture: Christopher Chan

A SECRET police dossier lifts the lid on St Kilda’s notorious Gatwick hotel, revealing it is rife with crime including rape, bomb threats, violence, drugs and robbery.

It is also tying up police ­resources with petty crimes ­including graffiti, drunks, trespassers and rocks being thrown at windows.

The Sunday Herald Sun has obtained offences logged on the police database showing there were about 252 recorded at the Gatwick between January 2012 and March this year.

Some of the call-outs have angered the police union boss, saying non-police matters were now wasting resources.

The flophouse has about 100 residents and many are prostitutes, drug users and criminals.

Among the more serious incidents lodged on the LEAP database are rape, ­aggravated burglary, “firearms incident”, false imprisonment and offenders breaching family violence orders and intervention orders leading to serious injuries being caused to victims during wild bashings.

Police at the Gatwick private hotel. Picture: Christopher Chan

Other incidents include:

A MAN assaulted a woman and then assaulted four police officers who arrested him;

A VICTIM who paid $200 for drugs at the hotel was then bashed severely;

POLICE assaulted after being called to deal with a drunk who had assaulted another guest;

A PHONE used to make a bomb threat;

TRAFFICKING of drugs including methamphetamine and cannabis.

Gatwick co-owner Yvette Kelly played down the police presence at the hotel.

“Not much happens here. There are about 100 people living here and you probably get the same amount of call-outs anywhere that you have that number,” she said.

Police Association secretary Ron Iddles said the hotel ­already tied up significant police resources without having to act on trivia like graffiti.

“That’s not a matter to call police, it’s a management issue for the hotel to deal with. Our members could be doing something else,” Mr Iddles said.

“The issue with the Gatwick is the people who stay there — there are a lot of criminals and those who are drug addicted but they need to live somewhere. It’s a concern to us our members are being assaulted.”

Port Phillip local area commander Inspector Narelle Beer said the Gatwick “presented very complex issues”.

“There has been some serious crime and on all occasions police strive to identify any offenders and put the matters before the courts,” Insp Beer said.

Fitzroy St Business Association president Jonathan Sherren said: “The behaviour of some of the residents and their cohorts has tried the patience of the local community.”

The Gatwick is now for sale and could fetch $12 million.

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