CALL TO MAKE STREETS SAFER FOR WOMEN TO WALK ALONE AT NIGHT:
Bashed, dumped in swamp
A RETIRED Cairns judge has questioned why women still aren’t safe to walk alone at night following the recent murder of a student in Melbourne, as he recalled the brutal slaying of a Japanese tourist more than 20 years ago.
Former Supreme Court Justice Stanley Jones has related the chilling death of Michiko Okuyama to a number of recent high-profile murder cases including Aiia Masarwe, Jill Meagher and Eurydice Dixon.
“These sort of random attacks on women walking the street alone are still happening in Australia . . . I’m not sure what it tells us about our society,” Judge Jones said.
“I just don’t know what we can do to identify the males likely to commit these crimes.”
Michiko’s violent death is still considered one of the most chilling murders the Far North as seen.
Young and attractive, the 22-year-old spoke no English when she arrived in Cairns on September 16, 1997.
Six days later she would be dead, her naked body stuffed in a bin and later publicly dragged through the city’s streets before it was dumped in Cairns Central swamp.
Her killer was a stranger – a 16-year-old, who was working nearby when Michiko caught his attention as she walked down Grafton St about 12.30pm on September 20.
Somehow he lured her inside an unused warehouse and bashed her to death in a windowless, soundproof vault before dumping her body in a wheelie bin.
A week later, after com- plaints about the smell, he pushed the bin five kilometres through the city including Grafton and Florence Sts in front of many people.
“Various residents were able to recall the stench as the wheelie bin was dragged along the footpath . . . to the swamp behind Trinity Bay State High School,” Judge Jones, who presided over the 1998 murder trial, said.
It was about two weeks before her badly decomposed remains were found by a man walking his dog.
Judge Jones said the extent of the violence and the way her body had been treated were two things that made the case stand out.
“It was a random attack,” he said. “She was a visitor.”
“There was a lot of rumour that other people were involved but that never came out in court.”
THESE SORT OF RANDOM ATTACKS ON WOMEN ARE STILL HAPPENING ... I’M NOT SURE WHAT IT TELLS US ABOUT OUR SOCIETY FORMER SUPREME COURT JUSTICE STANLEY JONES