Kylie Maria Antonia Maybury
(24 October 19786 November 1984) was an Australian schoolgirl from
Preston, an inner-city suburb of
Melbourne
Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...
,
Victoria
Victoria most commonly refers to:
* Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia
* Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada
* Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory
* Victoria, Seychelle ...
, Australia. Maybury was kidnapped,
rape
Rape is a type of sexual assault usually involving sexual intercourse or other forms of sexual penetration carried out against a person without their consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority, or ag ...
d, and murdered on 6 November 1984,
the date of the 1984
Melbourne Cup Day
The Melbourne Cup is a Thoroughbred horse race held in Melbourne, Australia. It is a 3200-metre race for three-year-olds and over, conducted by the Victoria Racing Club on the Flemington Racecourse in Melbourne, Victoria as part of the Melbour ...
; and she was nicknamed in the Melbourne tabloid newspaper ''
The Sun News-Pictorial
''The Sun News-Pictorial'' (known as ''The Sun'') was a morning daily Tabloid (newspaper format), tabloid newspaper published in Melbourne, Victoria (Australia), Victoria, from 1922 until its merger in 1990 with ''The Herald (Melbourne), The H ...
'' as the ''Cup Day Girl''.
More than 30 years after her death, in June 2016
Victoria Police
Victoria Police is the primary law enforcement agency of the Australian States and territories of Australia, state of Victoria (Australia), Victoria. It was formed in 1853 and currently operates under the ''Victoria Police Act 2013''.
, Victo ...
arrested and charged Gregory Keith Davies with the abduction, rape, and murder of Maybury. Davies later pleaded guilty to the murder and rape of Maybury and in December 2017 he was sentenced to
life imprisonment
Life imprisonment is any sentence of imprisonment for a crime under which convicted people are to remain in prison for the rest of their natural lives or indefinitely until pardoned, paroled, or otherwise commuted to a fixed term. Crimes for ...
with a non-
parole
Parole (also known as provisional release or supervised release) is a form of early release of a prison inmate where the prisoner agrees to abide by certain behavioral conditions, including checking-in with their designated parole officers, or ...
period of 28 years.
Abduction and murder
Maybury lived with her younger sister, Rebecca, and their mother, Julie, in Gregory Grove.[ She was a primary school student in grade one and was enrolled in callisthenics (to give historical context: the early 1980s was an era of an exercise and fitness movement targeted at little girls and adult women).
On the afternoon of 6 November 1984, Maybury had been sent to a ]convenience store
A convenience store, convenience shop, corner store or corner shop is a small retail business that stocks a range of everyday items such as coffee, groceries, snack foods, confectionery, soft drinks, ice creams, tobacco products, lottery ticket ...
on Plenty Road to buy a bag of sugar, which she bought at around 5:30 p.m. She was last seen going home, carrying the sugar, and looking as if she were lost. Her mother and neighbour went looking for her at around 6:00 p.m., when a woman approached them saying that she'd seen a girl being driven away in a white Holden station wagon. Maybury's body was found in the gutter of Donald Street at about 12:45 a.m. the next morning by a fire brigade electrician, Neil Rickwood, but had not been there when police searched the street at 7:30 p.m.
She had died of asphyxia
Asphyxia or asphyxiation is a condition of deficient supply of oxygen to the body which arises from abnormal breathing. Asphyxia causes generalized hypoxia, which affects primarily the tissues and organs. There are many circumstances that can i ...
tion while being raped and had suffered severe internal injuries, including vaginal trauma
Vaginal trauma is injury to the vagina. It can happen during childbirth, sexual assault, and accidental occurrences.
In adults, the vagina is largely protected from trauma due to the protective function of the mons pubis and labia majora. This p ...
. The autopsy
An autopsy (post-mortem examination, obduction, necropsy, or autopsia cadaverum) is a surgical procedure that consists of a thorough examination of a corpse by dissection to determine the cause, mode, and manner of death or to evaluate any di ...
found that diazepam
Diazepam, first marketed as Valium, is a medicine of the benzodiazepine family that acts as an anxiolytic. It is commonly used to treat a range of conditions, including anxiety, seizures, alcohol withdrawal syndrome, muscle spasms, insomnia, a ...
, a strong sedative, was in her body, suggesting that she had been drugged.
Investigation
Maybury's murder received significant media coverage.
Maybury was interred at Fawkner Crematorium and Memorial Park
Fawkner Memorial Park is located in the north-western Melbourne suburb of Fawkner, Victoria, Australia. It is the largest cemetery by land size in the state, and managed by Greater Metropolitan Cemeteries Trust.
Merlynston Creek, a tributary ...
. Her grandfather, John Moss, was a suspect, committing suicide in 1985. Her uncle, Mark Maybury, was similarly a suspect in the case; he committed suicide in jail in 1987. He was later found to be innocent of the crime, and is buried in the same cemetery as Maybury.[
In the 1990s, Victorian Police focused their attention on Robert Arthur Selby Lowe, who had murdered Melbourne schoolgirl Sheree Beasley.][ Shortly before Maybury's murder, Lowe had been interviewed by police about offensive behaviour to young girls near Preston.] DNA profiling
DNA profiling (also called DNA fingerprinting) is the process of determining an individual's DNA characteristics. DNA analysis intended to identify a species, rather than an individual, is called DNA barcoding.
DNA profiling is a forensic tec ...
later proved that Lowe was not responsible for Maybury's murder.[ Victoria Police began a new investigation into the murder among other cold cases in 2014, after media interest in the case led to numerous suspects being reported to the police.
]
Charges, committal and sentencing
In June 2016, 73-year-old Gregory Keith Davies was charged with the false imprisonment, rape and murder of Maybury, with a committal hearing
In law, a committal procedure is the process by which a defendant is charged with a serious offence under the criminal justice systems of all common law jurisdictions except the United States. The committal procedure, sometimes known as a prelim ...
for the case scheduled for May 2017. Davies had been interviewed by police two days after the murder during the original investigation. In 1970, he had bludgeoned a teenage girl with a hammer and told police he intended to rape her. At the time of the attack on Maybury, Davies lived in the area with his mother, and drove a white Holden HQ
The Holden HQ series is a range of automobiles that was produced by Holden in Australia from 1971 to 1974. The HQ was released on 15 July 1971, replacing the Holden HG series. It was the first ground-up redesign of the Holden line since its orig ...
station wagon, but was removed from the investigation without giving a DNA sample because he gave an alibi.
On 29 May 2017, Davies pleaded guilty to one charge of murder and one of rape, and asked for the false imprisonment charge to be taken into consideration. The following day, Davies was remanded into custody until a plea hearing on 21 September. On 23 July, Davies was attacked by another inmate while on remand, suffering serious burns from scalding water.
On 21 December 2017, Davies was sentenced by Justice Lex Lasry in the Supreme Court of Victoria
The Supreme Court of Victoria is the highest court in the Australian state of Victoria. Founded in 1852, it is a superior court of common law and equity, with unlimited and inherent jurisdiction within the state.
The Supreme Court comprises ...
to life imprisonment with a non-parole period of 28 years. With time in custody taken into account, Davies will be eligible for parole in June 2044; however, as he will be 101 years of age at that time, he will almost certainly spend the rest of his life in custody.
Other legal matters involving Davies
Earlier in his life Davies was convicted of another sex crime; and, according to a relative, Davies spent years jailed for other sex crimes against children. After the publicity of Maybury's rape and murder, several children told their parents that Davies had sexually assaulted them, but the charges against Davies were dropped as prosecutors suggested that it would be too hard for the children to testify in court. Lasry revealed in the sentencing proceedings that in May 1968 Davies was placed on a three-year good behaviour bond for larceny
Larceny is a crime involving the unlawful taking or theft of the personal property of another person or business. It was an offence under the common law of England and became an offence in jurisdictions which incorporated the common law of Engla ...
, fraud
In law, fraud is intentional deception to secure unfair or unlawful gain, or to deprive a victim of a legal right. Fraud can violate civil law (e.g., a fraud victim may sue the fraud perpetrator to avoid the fraud or recover monetary compens ...
, and uttering
Uttering is a crime involving a person with the intent to defraud that knowingly sells, publishes or passes a forged or counterfeited document. More specifically, forgery creates a falsified document and uttering is the act of knowingly passing o ...
. In February 1971 he was tried in the Victorian Supreme Court on the charge of attempted murder and wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm
Grievous bodily harm (often abbreviated to GBH) is a term used in English criminal law to describe the severest forms of battery. It refers to two offences that are created by sections 18 and 20 of the Offences against the Person Act 1861. The ...
, the victim being a 14-year-old girl. Davies was acquitted on the basis on insanity
Insanity, madness, lunacy, and craziness are behaviors performed by certain abnormal mental or behavioral patterns. Insanity can be manifest as violations of societal norms, including a person or persons becoming a danger to themselves or to ...
, yet ordered to be detained at the Governor's pleasure
At His Majesty's pleasure (sometimes abbreviated to King's pleasure or, when the reigning monarch is female, at Her Majesty's pleasure or Queen's pleasure) is a legal term of art referring to the indeterminate or undetermined length of service of c ...
and was released from custody on 3 November 1982. During this ten-year period in custody, Davies did not undergo any psychiatric treatment. In 1993 Davies was convicted on a number of burglar
Burglary, also called breaking and entering and sometimes housebreaking, is the act of entering a building or other areas without permission, with the intention of committing a criminal offence. Usually that offence is theft, robbery or murd ...
y, theft, and dishonesty charges; in 1996 he was convicted of charges involving indecent assault
Indecent assault is an offence of aggravated assault in some common law-based jurisdictions. It is characterised as a sex crime and has significant overlap with offences referred to as sexual assault.
England and Wales
Indecent assault was a broad ...
and gross indecency charges for which he served time in custody.
See also
*List of kidnappings
The following is a list of kidnappings summarizing the events of each individual case, including instances of celebrity abductions, claimed hoaxes, suspected kidnappings, extradition abductions, and mass kidnappings.
Before 1900
1900–1949
...
References
Further reading
*Moor, Keith
Keith Moor is a journalist, raised in Newcastle upon Tyne with a long career with the newspaper '' The Herald'' and its successor, the '' Herald Sun''.
During his long career with ''The Herald and Weekly Times
The Herald and Weekly Times Pty ...
; Wilkinson, Geoff. ''Mugshots 2: A Compelling Line-up of Murderers, Madmen and the Mafia in Australia, Volume 2'', News Custom Publishing, 2006
* Silvester, John; Rule, Andrew. ''Underbelly 5'', Allen & Unwin (Kindle Ed.), 2012
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Maybury, Kylie
1978 births
1980s in Melbourne
1984 murders in Australia
1984 deaths
Crime victims from Melbourne
Deaths by person in Australia
Deaths from asphyxiation
Formerly missing people
Incidents of violence against girls
Kidnapped Australian children
Child murder in Australia
Murder in Melbourne
November 1984 events in Australia
Female murder victims
People from Preston, Victoria