Bourke St inquest: Police didn’t think James Gargasoulas’ girlfriend was a useful source of information after abduction
Before mowing down pedestrians in busy Bourke St, Dimitrious Gargasoulas forced his girlfriend into a stolen car and led police on a wild chase across Melbourne.
Police & Courts
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Police hunting Bourke St killer Dimitrious Gargasoulas didn’t think his girlfriend was an important information source — despite her being with him in a stolen car while their attempts to catch him were failing.
Gargasoulas forced Akiir Muo — who he had abducted — out of the car about two hours before he killed six people and injured dozens more when he mowed pedestrians down in Bourke St.
Before the tragedy Ms Muo was spoken to by Detective Sergeant Adam Vohmann — but he didn’t believe she could provide an insight into the mind of Gargasoulas.
“You didn’t believe Muo would be an important source of information,” counsel assisting the Coroner, Paul Lawrie, asked him at the inquest on the deaths yesterday.
“Not overly … There was not a lot of information about progressing the investigation,” Sgt Vohmann said.
He already knew she had told police she believed Gargasoulas could be going to Werribee to buy drugs.
“All the information had already been broadcast in relation to the offender,” he said.
He agreed with Mr Lawrie that she was not a good witness given the trauma she had endured. The lawyer suggested she may have been more useful after calming down.
“Possibly, yes,” Sgt Vohmann said.
Ms Muo was taken to St Kilda police station where it was decided she was a victim and not an accomplice, but was left alone for a time.
Mr Lawrie said she would have been the best “immediate source about the offender — do you agree with that?”
“Yeah to a degree … her credibility needed to be assessed … you don’t know if (she was) trying to feed you information into a false direction or something like that … (but she) was a potentially good source,” Sgt Vohmann said.
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Elizabeth Ruddle, acting for the victims’ families, asked him about criticism contained in an internal police review by Assistant Commissioner Stephen Fontana.
“Were you aware that he indicated it was an error that she was left at that time and the priority should have been an interview and getting information from her?” Ms Ruddle asked. Sgt Vohmann said police were juggling an active incident and trying to find Gargasoulas.