Read Online The Russell Street Bombing by Vikki Petraitis - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Vikki Petraitis
Tags: True Crime, Crime Shots
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verdicts would vindicate their
investigative efforts.
Stanley Taylor and Craig Minogue were both found guilty of the murder Angela
Taylor and of causing serious injury to Iain West and Carl Donadio. Rodney
Minogue was found guilty of being an accessory after the fact. The jury retired
again to deliberate on its verdict for Peter Reed.
On Wednesday 13 July, the packed courtroom awaited the Reed verdict. It came
around 6pm. The winter's day had been dark and ominous. As the crowd waited,
tension mounted. You could have heard a pin drop. And then the verdict was read
out. The jury found Reed guilty of the attempted murder of Steven Quinsee and
guilty of recklessly causing serious injury to Mark Wylie in the Kallista raid.
It was a surprise to most of the courtroom onlookers when the jury returned a
verdict of not guilty on all counts relating to the Russell Street bombing.
It was with great irony that Peter Reed was under police surveillance on the
day the bomb went off in Russell Street. He had actually been followed to Haros
Avenue where police believe the bomb was assembled. Because Haros Avenue is a
dead-end street, the surveillance crew waited for his car to reappear from
around a bend in the road. They were unable to park covertly and still have a
view of the house. The surveillance team would have taken little notice of the
two-tone Holden bomb car as it drove past. And if Peter Reed was in it, they
didn't see him. So it turned out that if they saw him go to Haros Avenue and
didn't see him leave, then they were his alibi of sorts for the bombing.
As soon as the bomb went off, the surveillance headquarters at Russell Street
was badly damaged, and all teams were recalled to the office. The team wasn't at
Haros Avenue to see just who returned later on. Pity.
While the Taskforce detectives were elated at the convictions the previous
day, the not guilty verdict for Reed was a crushing blow.
Taylor was sentenced to a life sentence, never to be released. Craig Minogue
also received a life sentence, but the judge set a minimum term of twenty-eight
years. Rodney Minogue was convicted of being an accessory after the fact but his
conviction was quashed on appeal. At a re-trial in February 1990, Rodney Minogue
was acquitted of being an accessory after the fact and was released from prison
immediately. Peter Reed served nine years for his part in the raid shoot-out and
was released in 1995.
The Jika Jika fire wouldn't be Craig Minogue's only difficulty
in prison. The year he began his life sentence, another inmate called Alex
Tsakmakis was found beaten to death with gym weights hidden in a pillow case and
used as a cosh. Minogue was found guilty of the killing and received a second
murder conviction in 1988 to run concurrently with his bombing sentence.
But aside from a fatal fire which killed five inmates, and the coshing death
of Alex Tsakmakis, Craig Minogue has used his prison time productively. In 2005,
he completed a Bachelor of Arts degree and has been accepted as a PhD student at
LaTrobe University. He is eligible for parole in 2016.
Present Day Reflections
Looking back at the events surrounding the Russell Street
bombing twenty years after it happened, many police officers see it as a
starting point for an attitudinal change in the Victoria Police. For the first
time, they knew that there were people out there who wanted to harm them. A year
and a half later, on 12 October 1988, two police officers Steven Tynan and
Damian Eyre were gunned down in Walsh Street, South Yarra. If the police were in
any doubt that they were becoming targets, the cold-blooded shooting of Tynan
and Eyre proved the point.
Police armed themselves for the fight - in the next decade, officers from
Victoria Police would shot and kill 31 people, when in the same period there
were 28 police/civilian fatalities in the rest of the states in Australia
combined. A police taskforce in 1994 recommended retraining for all officers in
the use of
investigative efforts.
Stanley Taylor and Craig Minogue were both found guilty of the murder Angela
Taylor and of causing serious injury to Iain West and Carl Donadio. Rodney
Minogue was found guilty of being an accessory after the fact. The jury retired
again to deliberate on its verdict for Peter Reed.
On Wednesday 13 July, the packed courtroom awaited the Reed verdict. It came
around 6pm. The winter's day had been dark and ominous. As the crowd waited,
tension mounted. You could have heard a pin drop. And then the verdict was read
out. The jury found Reed guilty of the attempted murder of Steven Quinsee and
guilty of recklessly causing serious injury to Mark Wylie in the Kallista raid.
It was a surprise to most of the courtroom onlookers when the jury returned a
verdict of not guilty on all counts relating to the Russell Street bombing.
It was with great irony that Peter Reed was under police surveillance on the
day the bomb went off in Russell Street. He had actually been followed to Haros
Avenue where police believe the bomb was assembled. Because Haros Avenue is a
dead-end street, the surveillance crew waited for his car to reappear from
around a bend in the road. They were unable to park covertly and still have a
view of the house. The surveillance team would have taken little notice of the
two-tone Holden bomb car as it drove past. And if Peter Reed was in it, they
didn't see him. So it turned out that if they saw him go to Haros Avenue and
didn't see him leave, then they were his alibi of sorts for the bombing.
As soon as the bomb went off, the surveillance headquarters at Russell Street
was badly damaged, and all teams were recalled to the office. The team wasn't at
Haros Avenue to see just who returned later on. Pity.
While the Taskforce detectives were elated at the convictions the previous
day, the not guilty verdict for Reed was a crushing blow.
Taylor was sentenced to a life sentence, never to be released. Craig Minogue
also received a life sentence, but the judge set a minimum term of twenty-eight
years. Rodney Minogue was convicted of being an accessory after the fact but his
conviction was quashed on appeal. At a re-trial in February 1990, Rodney Minogue
was acquitted of being an accessory after the fact and was released from prison
immediately. Peter Reed served nine years for his part in the raid shoot-out and
was released in 1995.
The Jika Jika fire wouldn't be Craig Minogue's only difficulty
in prison. The year he began his life sentence, another inmate called Alex
Tsakmakis was found beaten to death with gym weights hidden in a pillow case and
used as a cosh. Minogue was found guilty of the killing and received a second
murder conviction in 1988 to run concurrently with his bombing sentence.
But aside from a fatal fire which killed five inmates, and the coshing death
of Alex Tsakmakis, Craig Minogue has used his prison time productively. In 2005,
he completed a Bachelor of Arts degree and has been accepted as a PhD student at
LaTrobe University. He is eligible for parole in 2016.
Present Day Reflections
Looking back at the events surrounding the Russell Street
bombing twenty years after it happened, many police officers see it as a
starting point for an attitudinal change in the Victoria Police. For the first
time, they knew that there were people out there who wanted to harm them. A year
and a half later, on 12 October 1988, two police officers Steven Tynan and
Damian Eyre were gunned down in Walsh Street, South Yarra. If the police were in
any doubt that they were becoming targets, the cold-blooded shooting of Tynan
and Eyre proved the point.
Police armed themselves for the fight - in the next decade, officers from
Victoria Police would shot and kill 31 people, when in the same period there
were 28 police/civilian fatalities in the rest of the states in Australia
combined. A police taskforce in 1994 recommended retraining for all officers in
the use of
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