Dark past of Sydney suburb’s ‘worst property’

It’s been dubbed one of Sydney’s “worst blocks” due to its dark past - but residents have hit back after a man was stabbed to death at the address last weekend.

Locals from a notorious Sydney unit block dubbed “the suburb’s worst property” have defended living there - despite its dark past.

Police were called to 75 Lakemba St in Belmore last Saturday night where a 34-year-old man was found dead from a “number of stab wounds”.

A 21-year-old man was on Tuesday charged with murder after an investigation by homicide detectives.

Outside 75 Lakemba St.

Residents hit back at slights on their home.

This was not the first time 75 Lakemba St has made the news – computer programmer Paul Le Roux once lived there before he became an infamous international crime boss.

Le Roux called unit 5C home in the 1990s and it was there he wrote a breakthrough program called Encryption for the Masses.

He went on to leave Australia and head a sprawling criminal empire that smuggled diamonds in his native Africa, ran drugs in North Korea and developed tech for Iran – while a new version of his encryption program was adopted by terror groups al-Qaeda and Islamic State.

Pictures from inside his old unit show the humble surrounds this crime-lord-to-be once worked in. He is now serving 25 years in a US prison.

The judge who sentenced Le Roux likened him to a real life “villain in a James Bond movie”.

Convicted crime boss Paul Calder Le Roux

Le Roux found himself living at the unit block in the 90s.

When news.com.au visited the “Bel-Air Flats” this week, rubbish was strewn across the front garden of the 30-odd unit building.

Among the rubble was old couches, rolled up carpets, cardboard boxes and old food delivery bags.

Real estate data shows units in the block built in 1982 were listed for as little as $240 per week when last on the market.

The “Bel-Air Flats” in Belmore. Picture: Hollie Adams/The Australian

Inside unit 5C, which was last listed for rent in 2015 for $360.

But residents from the unit block came into bat over claims that they lived in the “worst property” around.

One long-term resident conceded police visited the site “on and off” but he rejected that it was a bad place to live.

“I lived here for 30 years, if it was that bad I’d be long gone,” he said.

Another resident they had lived in one of the units for two years and “this is the first thing that’s happened”.

Lots of mail was waiting to be collected.

The building’s tired facade.

“It’s a family building,” he said.

“There’s no reason to blame the building or the area. It’s a peaceful building.”

The alleged stabbing victim was an “outsider” who may have been visiting a new tenant that recently moved in, the residents claimed.

As for the items strewn out front of the property, it was claimed the council had missed the most recent hard rubbish pick up.

Canterbury-Bankstown Council said in a statement it had been working for the past six months to address rubbish being dumped in front of the property.

”A council cleanup had been booked in on 5 March, however, it had not been secured properly and was deemed unsafe for our drivers to handle,” it said.

It was now due to be collected next month, the council said.