Pictured: Shane Chartres-Abbott, accused of raping a woman who claimed he’d said he was a ‘vampire that needed blood to survive’
There has been a revived effort to solve the 14-year-old mystery of the execution-style murder of an accused rapist in Melbourne known as the ‘Vampire Gigolo’.
Male prostitute and self-proclaimed vampire Shane Chartres-Abbott, 28, was on trial for the vicious rape of another prostitute in 2003 when he was gunned down outside his home in front of his girlfriend Kathleen Price and her father Jerry.
A new podcast by journalist Adam Shand is attempting to get to the bottom of the infamous case, in a series called The Trials of The Vampire.
The woman was found in the bath of a room at the Hotel Saville in South Yarra, in August 2002. She had been raped and savagely assaulted.
She was dripping blood from her mouth after having her tongue almost ripped out.
During the trial the victim, known as Penny, claimed Mr Chartres-Abbott had told her he was a ‘200-year-old vampire that needed blood to survive’.
Chartres-Abbott’s alleged victim was found in a hotel bath in South Yarra, Melbourne, with blood dripping from her mouth
The man was put on trial for rape, but was executed just hours before he was due to testify in court outside his home in Reservoir (pictured)
Just one day after Chartres-Abbot was shot dead, the rape case was shut down.
Mr Shand told News Corp he was unhappy with the narrative that was spouted as complete truth throughout Australia.
‘We never asked the hard questions because it was all too convenient,’ he said.
‘He was dead now, he was the vampire gigolo.’
Mr Shand says he isn’t convinced Chartres-Abbott had been executed as revenge for the rape of Penny, noting the man had promised to lift the lid on aspects of a violent gangland war raging throughout Melbourne.
He was due to testify in court about what he claimed was a plot against his own life just hours before he was executed in 2003.
Three years on, a jailed criminal confessed to his murder, adding salacious allegations against Victoria Police.
He claimed officers past and present had been involved in the execution-style murder and had given him both Chartres-Abbott’s address, and an alibi for the time of the shooting.
Just one day after Chartres-Abbot was murdered, the rape case against him was shut down
Chartres-Abbott had promised to lift the lid on a bloody gangland war raging throughout Melbourne, and name people in positions of power who were involved
A new podcast seeks to find the truth behind the murder of Chartres-Abbott, after an investigation lasting more than a decade and costing $30million ended with no convictions
In a preview for the podcast, Mr Shand says the case ‘ceased to be a murder investigation and turned into a purge of links between Victoria Police and the underworld’.
Despite more than a decade of investigations costing $30million, nothing was proven, and the Vampire Gigolo’s death remains unresolved.
Mr Shand is skeptical his podcast investigation will solve the murder, but he told News Corp he is hoping to see the mysteries solved.
‘I’m hoping someone might go, I want to cleanse myself, I did it, I need to be punished,’ he said.
‘That probably won’t happen, but it’d be nice. We get all emotionally involved in these things but everyone involved has to move on. I hope that we can have some resolution ultimately.’
The journalist behind the podcast, Adam Shand, said he didn’t think his investigative podcast would necessarily solve the murder, but he hoped someone would come forward about the shooting