Government pushes for investigation into death of Australia’s Elly Warren in Africa
EXCLUSIVE: Federal Government will push for an investigation into the Mozambique death of Melbourne woman Elly Warren, as it is revealed a UK tourist was violently attacked just metres from the spot Ms Warren was found dead.
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The Federal Government will push for an investigation into the Mozambique death of Melbourne woman Elly Warren, as it is revealed a UK tourist was violently attacked just metres from the spot Ms Warren was killed.
Scottish mum of two Sarah Hayrikyan told News Corp a drunk, Tofo policeman followed her from a bar in the early hours of the morning, grabbed her, poked a baton into her back, twisted her arm and threatened to rape and kill her.
She fears the same man may have attacked Elly Warren years later.
Photos show Ms Hayrikyan — who was 21 years old when the assault occurred in June 2010 — looked very similar to 20 year-old Elly Warren.
The terrifying attack took place just metres away from the public toilet block in Tofo where Ms Warren was found dead two years ago, face down in the sand, with her bikini bottoms around her knees.
The revelation comes as Prime Minister Scott Morrison told News Corp the Federal Government had last week raised the “terrible tragedy” of Elly’s death with Mozambique authorities “at the most senior levels”, and would apply pressure on the government in an effort to get answers.
LAST SEEN LEAVING TOFO BAR
Ms Warren had been volunteering on a marine conservation project in Mozambique when she was killed. Her lifeless body was discovered by a local fisherman at 5am on November 9, 2016.
She was last seen leaving a Tofo bar about midnight.
Multiple autopsy results on the fit and otherwise healthy young Australian woman have shown she died from asphyxiation. They also show she had no drugs in her system. Extraordinarily, no semen tests were carried out.
Her father, Paul Warren, is convinced Elly was attacked and killed, with her head held in the sand until she suffocated, and that vital information and evidence was covered up by Mozambique authorities when the matter was originally investigated.
Elly’s death appeared to have been all but forgotten by the Australian Government and investigators until the Herald Sun brought it to light in August this year, Mr Warren said.
MORE: Death in Paradise. Read the August News Corp investigation into Elly’s death here
Mr Morrison said he understood Elly’s family was frustrated and distressed by the amount of time it had taken to properly investigate her death.
“As a father, in the tragic circumstances of their daughter’s death, I can well understand the family’s desire for justice and requests for government support,” he said. “We will do everything we can to help solve Elly’s murder and provide some form of justice for her family.”
MORE: Paul Warren’s warning to other young Aussie travellers — ‘stick together’.
Meanwhile, Mr Shorten has personally called Mr Warren to offer his support and has also written to the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) and Foreign Minister Marise Payne saying he was “aware of apparent inconsistencies into the investigation into Elly’s death conducted but the local authorities, including possible interference in the crime scene”.
Mr Shorten urged the government to “increase diplomatic attention and pressure” on Mozambique to allow for an independent investigation into her death by a crack team of Australian Federal Police criminal and forensic investigators.
The Labor leader has also written to AFP commissioner Andrew Colvin and the Mozambique consulate in Melbourne.
Both Mr Morrison and Mr Shorten declined to say what sort of diplomatic pressure would or could be exerted on Mozambique to encourage it to co-operate.
A spokesman for the AFP confirmed it was liaising with Mozambique authorities and had offered to assist them.
But Mozambique Honorary Consul Richard Udovenya told News Corp late last week he was unaware of any official application from the Australian Government asking for its police officers to be able to investigate Elly’s death in Tofo.
“I understand that the authorities in both Australia and Mozambique are in direct and regular contact concerning Ms Warren’s death, through proper diplomatic channels,” he said. “However, I am not aware of the Australian Government having formally offered the services of the Federal Police to assist the Mozambique police in its investigation.”
A Change.org petition calling for an independent investigation into Elly’s death has gained nearly 50,000 signatures and a #justiceforelly social media campaign is gathering momentum.
ASSAULTED BY POLICEMAN
Ms Hayrikyan said she was an engineering student volunteering in Africa when
she was viciously assaulted by the policeman on June 30.
She had managed to break free of her attacker, find help in the form of a visiting American family, and make her way to the police station to report the assault, Ms Hayrikyan said.
Other tourists also accompanied Ms Hayrikyan to the police station, including young Australian travel blogger Ben Lancaster, who has publicly detailed the terrifying events of the night and the threatening, corrupt behaviour of the Tofo police.
It was at the police station Ms Hayrikyan (then Sarah Higgins) saw her attacker in police uniform and upon identifying him, alleges her passport was taken, she was framed for drug possession and resisting arrest, further threatened and bribed into paying money in order to have her passport returned and to go free.
On his blog, Mr Lancaster said he and others feared for their lives that night as guns were pointed in their faces. None of the police officers had name tags so could not be identified.
“After running out back the accused officer returned armed with an AK-47,” Mr Lancaster wrote. “As the situation escalated rapidly out of control, remaining calm, I attempted to reason with the armed officer outside. While the senior officer defended his own inside, the now totally enraged officer in the shadows of the station was jamming his firearm inches from my face, screaming Portuguese with veins popping from his protruding eyes … our lives were realistically at risk, two of the three officers had also been drinking at (local bar) Fatima’s and were heavily intoxicated, mumbling and stumbling, on edge, panicked and armed.”
Ms Hayrikyan said after involving the British Embassy in the matter the next day and then returning to the UK, she received a phone call in early July informing her the police officer responsible for the attack been fired and also faced more serious consequences.
However, Ms Hayrikyan said she had never been told the name of the officer and had no way of checking if this had in fact been the case.
Ms Hayrikyan said after recently learning of Elly’s death and her family’s desperate search for answers, she wrote to the British Consular asking for its assistance in finding the name of her police attacker and his whereabouts, because the British High Commission in Mozambique was being “less than helpful”.
“I want to do anything in my power to assist with Elly’s investigation and to protect future, innocent tourists,” Ms Hayrikyan said.
Mr Warren, who recently travelled to Tofo to secretly investigate his daughter’s death, said witnesses had told him the crime scene had been tampered with by local police and that Elly’s body had been moved following her death.