Monstrous

The Darker Side => The Blood Track => Topic started by: monstr on June 01, 2003, 06:20:01 AM

Title: Another vampire murder
Post by: monstr on June 01, 2003, 06:20:01 AM
A MALE prostitute accused of raping and attacking a client said he was a vampire, a jury heard yesterday.

The woman was found naked, bloodied and unconscious in the shower of a hotel room. Part of her tongue had been ripped out, the County Court heard.

The victim, 30, told the jury that days before she was attacked, Shane Chartres-Abbott, a prostitute, told her he was a vampire and that he drank blood to live.

Mr Chartres-Abbott's lawyer, Alan Hands, said in his opening that the prosecution case was based on circumstantial evidence.

An alternative scenario was that the victim was grooming his client for a role in a "snuff movie" in which he would be killed.

"The Crown case is a story worthy of Bram Stoker and a mystery worthy of Agatha Christie," Mr Hands said. "But both of those were works of fiction and that is what their case is."

Mr Chartres-Abbott, 28, of Reservoir, has pleaded not guilty to two counts of rape and one of intentionally causing serious injury and recklessly causing serious injury.

In his opening, prosecutor George Slim said the trial concerned allegations of rape and inflicting "brutal and indeed life-threatening personal violence".

Mr Slim said the victim hired Mr Chartres-Abbott through an escort agency in mid-July and had sex with him several times at her Richmond home before meeting at the Hotel Saville in South Yarra days before the attack.

On August 16 last year the victim spoke to Mr Chartres-Abbott on her mobile phone and arranged to meet him at the hotel.

The jury heard they met about midnight where Mr Chartres-Abbott was introduced to a male friend of hers who then left.

The jury would hear the hotel manager found her lying unconscious in a shower at 11.20am. She was covered in blood and badly injured.

The victim suffered black eyes, swelling, bruising to her neck and jaw, teeth marks in her right thigh and 2.5cm to 5cm of her tongue had been ripped out.

Mr Slim said her mobile phone was later found in Mr Chartres-Abbott's work bag and her blood on a black jacket at his home.

Defence lawyer Mr Hands told the jury what happened to the victim was dreadful but his client didn't rape or assault her.

When his client went to meet the victim that night, he heard her arguing with a man in the room and didn't want to go inside. She later told him the argument was about his role in a "snuff movie" but she went cold on the idea because she liked Mr Chartres-Abbott.

"My client was being groomed to appear in one movie . . . at the end of it he would be killed," he said.

Mr Hands said the woman was attacked after Mr Chartres-Abbott left as she slept about 5am.

The victim denied suggestions by Mr Hands that she had an interest in vampires, was familiar with author Anne Rice or knew of the movie Interview with the Vampire.

The trial before Judge Bill White is continuing.