A man stalked a woman for more than 1km before striking in a North Melbourne laneway. Police established a crime scene in Brown Lane, North Melbourne. Picture: David Caird Source: Herald Sun
Blood stains are still visibile on the footpath where the woman was assaulted. Picture: David Caird Source: Herald Sun
THE latest violent crime to shock our city has a chilling similarity to the most terrible one of recent times.
Less than a year after Jill Meagher was taken from a street by a fiend who then brutally ended her life, another young woman is dragged into an alleyway and out of sight.
And, like Jill, she too was walking home alone after a night out.
The 23-year-old must have felt confident enough to pace herself against the pre-dawn traffic, from a city club to her home in North Melbourne.
Walking along King St, which is heavily fortified by CCTV, she was seemingly undeterred.
But nor was the stranger walking behind her.
When she got to the northern edge of the CBD, where the last of the cameras cast a watchful eye on the corner of La Trobe St, this pathetic man made his move.
He tried to talk to her, even hold her hand.
The woman showed no interest and walked on.
Police established a crime scene in Brown Lane, North Melbourne. Picture: Caird David Source: Herald Sun
It was not until she was walking past a crooked laneway off Chetwynd St that her stalker launched his savage attack.
As the woman was punched, dragged and pushed across the cobbled stones of Brown Lane, her screams tore through the darkness.
But, unlike that terrible night in Brunswick just off Sydney Road last year, neighbours who heard the desperate cries of this victim acted quickly.
As shrill yells bounced off bluestone walls, at least two locals living near by immediately phoned the police.
Pava Lawrence and his wife had been asleep in their home just 20m away.
"She was calling desperately for help and my wife heard her," Mr Lawrence said.
By the time they came downstairs, another neighbour had run to the woman's aid and the police had arrived.
The woman, now brutalised and bloody, sat hunched on a step. The cowardly attacker was running off.
Yesterday, cafe customers sipped lattes just metres from where this sexual predator had struck.
Picture: AFP Source: AFP
Bloodstains in the alleyway were a lasting mark of his evil.
They would wash away far easier than the growing unease of those who saw the aftermath of the assault.
Mr Lawrence, a shift worker, was overwhelmed by sadness and frustration.
"It shocked us all," he said. "I guess we kind of feel some kind of collective responsibility when society goes to s--- like this.
"This has so closely mirrored what happened to Jill Meagher and we can't help blaming ourselves in some way. Maybe we could have done more?"
A block away, detectives scoured another laneway for evidence.
They cordoned it off with police tape as an Air Wing helicopter hovered.
Firefighters even extended the long arm of a cherry picker to scan rooftops and prepared to launch a hi-tech drone to pinpoint other clues.
Just like last September, police would refer to CCTV footage in a bid to build another grainy timeline of horror in black and white.
But, unlike in the Jill Meagher case - when CCTV effectively caught Adrian Bayley - they may not find any to refer to.
With no cameras on Chetwynd St, the assault may have gone unrecorded.
Investigators hope to find the contents of the woman's handbag, believed to have been thrown by her assailant.
The final act from this gutless offender may have been to rifle through his victim's belongings looking for anything of value - potentially leaving tell-tale DNA.
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