Cold justice for murder

DECADES after murdering a man and raping two women in a quiet Melbourne lovers’ lane car park, James Dobbie has been jailed for up to 31 years.

In three separate attacks at Rowville’s Police Paddocks Reserve in 1980 and 1983, Dobbie raped two young women at gunpoint. Their boyfriends were tied up and forced to watch, helpless to stop him. Rodney Mitchell tried to stop Dobbie in the third attack but was shot and killed.

Dobbie fled to Cape Tribulation, remaining there until an anonymous tip last year.