Woman burnt
A woman was allegedly set on fire by another woman outside a Shepparton home on January 15.
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It is alleged that a woman poured accelerant on the victim’s head and used a lighter to ignite it in Middlesex Cres.
The matter is still proceeding before the courts.
Stabbing attack
Echuca woman Ash Good was one of the six people killed in a stabbing attack at a Sydney shopping centre in April.
Dr Good died after she was stabbed at Westfield Bondi Junction in Sydney’s eastern suburbs.
Eight other people were hospitalised, including Dr Good’s baby.
Dr Good grew up in Echuca and attended St Joseph’s College.
Her nine-month-old daughter, Harriet, was also taken to hospital after having been stabbed by a man at the scene.
Reports say that in her final moments in the mall, Dr Good handed off Harriet to two men, hoping they would be able to save her.
The attacker, 40-year-old Joel Cauchi, was shot dead by a senior police officer.
There was an outpouring of grief after Dr Good’s death, with a GoFundMe page raising $846,765.
Cobram death
A Cobram man has been charged with negligent manslaughter after the death of Cobram woman Emma Bates.
Ms Bates, 49, was found dead in her home in Campbell Rd, Cobram, on April 23.
The man was earlier charged with intentionally causing injury, recklessly causing injury, common law assault, aggravated assault of a female and unlawful assault.
On December 13, police laid the new charge of negligent manslaughter as part of their investigation into her death.
The matter is still proceeding through the courts.
Sentenced for supermarket death
The man who killed another man by stomping on his head at a Mooroopna supermarket in 2023 was sentenced to six years in prison in June.
Matthew Atkinson, 20, of Shepparton, pleaded guilty in the Shepparton Supreme Court to manslaughter and drug trafficking charges.
He will have to serve three years and six months before becoming eligible for parole.
The manslaughter charge relates to the death of Mooroopna man Bjorn Delphine, 46, who was taken to hospital with life-threatening injuries after an assault by Atkinson at Woolworths in Mooroopna on May 22, 2023.
Mr Delphine died in hospital on June 5, 2023, from a significant brain injury and a fractured skull.
Justice Elizabeth Hollingworth said police had received four complaints from girls about Mr Delphine’s alleged behaviour in girls’ toilets, and Atkinson was also aware of those allegations.
However, Justice Hollingworth noted Mr Delphine was not charged or convicted of any offences.
Court of Appeal returns to Shepparton
Victoria’s highest court sat in Shepparton in June for the first time in more than six years.
Three different appeals were heard over three days by the Court of Appeal in the Supreme Court during its time in Shepparton from June 4 to 6, while a fourth day was set aside for rulings on the appeals to be handed down.
While the Court of Appeal, which hears appeals from both the County Court and Supreme Court, sits regularly in Melbourne, the last time there was a circuit in Shepparton was more than six years ago — in April 2018 — shortly after the current court building was opened.
Drug busts
In a relentless 12-month campaign to mid-year, Shepparton police removed almost $1 million of illicit drugs, cash and alleged proceeds of crime from the streets.
The extensive crackdown by Crime Investigation Unit detectives resulted in 26 people being charged with trafficking large commercial and commercial quantities of illicit drugs.
Over the past year, Shepparton detectives ran two major operations in the region, seizing about 31.5kg of MDMA, 1.6kg of methamphetamines, 2.1kg of cannabis, 342g of cocaine, 400ml of GHB, and more than $500,000 cash.
Police have also seized a significant number of cars, motorbikes and jet skis as alleged proceeds of crime.
One of the most significant results occurred in June, when detectives arrested 11 people and seized an estimated $600,000 worth of methamphetamines, MDMA, cocaine, cannabis and cash.
Woman accused of eagle deaths faces court
A woman was found guilty of baiting and killing eagles and other birds of prey at her Violet Town property.
In late 2023 Dorothy Sloan, 84, pleaded not guilty in Shepparton Magistrates’ Court to 34 counts of killing wildlife by poison — including baiting 23 medium-sized raptors and 11 wedge-tailed eagles — as well as pleading not guilty to seven counts of aggravated cruelty that resulted in the deaths of six wedge-tailed eagles and a whistling kite because of a poisoned bait, and five counts of possessing protected wildlife.
She also pleaded guilty to 26 charges of wildlife possession, including four kangaroo joeys and 22 birds, mainly galahs, cockatoos and ducks, which were found in a freezer in her house.
The case came about after carcasses of 271 dead birds and animals — most of which were wedge-tailed eagles or other birds of prey — were found in 2019 during an investigation into the poisoning of the birds in the Violet Town and Earlston areas.
The charges before the court did not relate to all the bird deaths, only those that died from July 2019 onwards.
In July, Magistrate David Faram found her guilty of all charges against her.
Mr Faram said that while he was “unable to conclude” that Sloan was solely responsible for the offending, he was satisfied that if she didn’t do the poisoning herself she “intentionally assisted or encouraged”, and therefore could be found guilty of the charges as she had been complicit.
Mrs Sloan died before she was sentenced, and all charges were struck out.
Jail sentence for forced marriage
A Shepparton mother who forced her 20-year-old daughter to marry a man who later murdered her was jailed in July.
Sakina Muhammad Jan, 48, was sentenced to three years behind bars after a jury found her guilty of causing a person to enter into a forced marriage.
Jan will be released from custody on a recognisance order after 12 months and faces deportation to Afghanistan once released from custody.
Jan forced her 30-year-old daughter Ruqia Haidari to marry Mohammad Ali Halimi in August 2019.
Halimi killed his bride five months later and is serving a life prison term for her murder.
The court was told Jan coerced Ms Haidari into the marriage after her first arranged marriage ended in divorce.
Sentence after house set alight
Two Shepparton brothers who set a house alight while three people were sleeping inside were sentenced to jail in September.
Liam Mitchell Brown, 27, pleaded guilty in the Koori Court division of the Shepparton County Court to charges of reckless conduct endangering people, arson and making a threat to inflict serious injury, while Luke Anthony Brown, 34, pleaded guilty to reckless conduct endangering people.
The brothers went to an Olympic Ave, Shepparton, home where three people were sleeping just after 7.45am on July 5, 2020.
Luke stood with Liam as Liam held a propane blowtorch to a television in a bedroom, attempting to ignite it.
Liam then went to the unoccupied front bedroom of the house and set a fire there.
The house was on fire three minutes later and the occupants were forced to flee.
Liam Brown was sentenced to three years and six months in prison and will have to serve two years and four months before becoming eligible for parole.
Luke Brown was sentenced to 18 months in prison and will have to serve one year before becoming eligible for parole.
Tobacco shop armed robbery
Two men armed with a gun and a knife robbed Benalla Rd Convenience and Tobacconist in Shepparton on September 30.
The pair were wearing black hoodies and balaclavas as they threatened staff and demanded money and cigarettes.
The pair fled the scene in a dark-coloured Ford Falcon sedan.
Search for missing man
About 45 SES and Shepparton Search and Rescue volunteers spent a day searching properties and the roadside at Shepparton East for any sign of missing Ballarat man Gary Butt on October 16.
Mr Butt, 73, suffered from dementia, and had been missing from his home since September 22.
He was captured on CCTV at Shepparton train station at 10pm on the night he went missing, and also on CCTV in the area of the search an hour later.
Searchers focused on the roadside and properties along the Midland Hwy east of Doyles Rd.
They conducted line searches along the highway, and also split into groups to look through nearby orchards and properties.
The Victoria Police Search and Rescue team also used a drone to fly over crops in the area.
The search covered about 3.8km along the Midland Hwy and extended back about 300m into properties.
Searchers found a green bag containing Mr Butt’s belongings near the Midland Hwy and Central Ave.
Sadly, Mr Butt’s body was found at a Caniambo property on November 4.
Alleged home invasion
Three people have been charged over an alleged home invasion in Community St in Shepparton at 5.15am on October 21.
Two occupants of the house were allegedly assaulted, with a 41-year-old man and a 33-year-old woman taken to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
The three arrested have not entered pleas to the charges they face and have all been remanded in custody.
A further two people were arrested, but released pending further inquiries.
Fatal crash driver escapes jail sentence
The driver in a crash that killed a five-year-old and resulted in the death of an unborn baby escaped a jail sentence, instead being placed on a two-year community corrections order, with 250 hours of community work.
Chrystle Olivia Kemp, 27, of Shepparton, pleaded guilty in Shepparton County Court in November to dangerous driving causing the death of her niece, five-year-old Savannah Kemp, and dangerous driving causing serious injury to Elodie Aldridge, which resulted in the loss of her unborn baby.
The charges stem from a crash at Shepparton East on October 20, 2023, when Kemp drove through a stop sign at the intersection of Old Dookie Rd and Boundary Rd and was hit on either side by cars travelling in opposite directions on Boundary Rd.
Savannah died at the scene, while Mrs Aldridge — who was 34 weeks pregnant — was flown to a Melbourne hospital, where her baby was delivered stillborn during an emergency caesarean.
St George’s Rd armed robbery
A 14-year-old female worker was threatened with a knife in an armed robbery on a St George’s Rd store in Shepparton on December 8.
The person also threatened the 46-year-old store owner with a knife and chased him out of the Gulistan Groceries and Bakery store, police said.
Jailed for hit-and-run
A hit-and-run driver who hit and killed a teenager in Benalla who was crossing the road in August 2023, was jailed in December.
Dylan Mark Norman, 24, of Baddaginnie, pleaded guilty in the Shepparton County Court to failing to stop at a fatal accident, destroying a thing to prevent it being used in evidence in court, dangerous driving causing death and a summary charge of driving while disqualified.
The charges relate to a hit-and-run crash where Benalla 16-year-old Caleb Puttyfoot died after he was hit by Norman’s ute in Bridge St West in Benalla on August 4, 2023.
It was dark and raining and Caleb ran across the road about “one or two metres” from a pedestrian crossing against a red signal.
Norman had been driving at least 76km/h in a 60km/h zone, and was facing a green light.
However, in sentencing, Judge Geoffrey Chettle said Norman “should not have been driving at all” because his licence had been disqualified.
After the crash, Norman went to a neighbour’s property at Baddaginnie and made repairs to the bonnet of his ute that night.
Norman was sentenced to a total of four years and one month in prison, with a non-parole period of two years and nine months.