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PAGES 2, 14 & 15 Wednesday, 20 September, 2017
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Hunt for rapist By Bonny Burrows
In Blue Heaven! The premiership horizon has a navy blue tinge in 2017 after Berwick and Catani paraded their traditional colours in grand style on Saturday. The two clubs enhanced the vista by climbing to the top of mountain - claiming premierships
to savour. Berwick won its second flag in three years in the South East Football Netball League, while Catani, the local footy club that has long been the living, breathing heartbeat of the town, took a grip on its first piece of
silverware since 2005. More than a decade after he last led the Blues to senior premiership glory, Paul Alger this time in his second stint at the club as coach - repeated the dose as the Catani legend grew. Celebrations began at
Berwick’s Edwin Flack Reserve and flowed through the night at Catani’s Taplins Road club rooms ... as they all stood as one. Bound by blue.
More in this week’s souvenir edition of the Gazette Football Lift-Out.
Police say they are hunting for a Warragul man after a 49-year-old Pakenham woman suffered a “horrific” rape while being given a lift by the stranger. Detectives are ramping up their search to find the man responsible for the sexual assault Police are appealing which has left the for anyone who may woman too “trauma- know this man to come forward. tised” to speak out. The woman was hitchhiking along the Princes Highway in Beaconsfield near Whiteside Road about midnight on Sunday 30 July following a disagreement with a friend. Detective Senior Constable Steve Phillips from Victoria Police’s Sexual Crimes Squad told a press conference at Victoria Police Centre in Docklands yesterday (Tuesday) that the woman was picked up by a man driving a vehicle similar to a 2001 white Toyota Hilux flat tray ute. He was described as being about 50 years old with sandy coloured hair which was short on the sides and curly on top. DSC Phillips said the woman and the man had a friendly conversation after which the woman agreed to go with him to talk further. “He said he’d take her somewhere to have a chat. She felt quite happy at the time,” DSC Phillips said. She was driven to Starling Road in Officer, a short distance from the Princes Highway and near the football oval and Glenvale School where police said the man raped her. “He jumped on top of her ... his weight was on top of her,” DSC Phillips said. The woman was not restrained nor were the vehicle’s doors locked. However, DSC Phillips said with the area poorly lit and with no cars or houses in sight, the woman was afraid of what the man would do if she tried to escape or fight back. Following the assault, the man’s demeanour changed, DSC Phillips said, and he drove the woman to near where she lived.
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