UPDATE: Albion’s Sean Christian Price, 31, the man accused of the murder of Doncaster schoolgirl Masa Vukotic, has been charged with raping a woman in a Christian bookshop in Sunshine just before he handed himself into police.
Word bookstore on Harvester Road, where the alleged assault occurred at 11.20am on Thursday, is just 500 metres from the Sunshine police station where 31-year-old Price was taken into custody after handing himself in less than half-an-hour later.
The 41-year-old woman who was allegedly attacked was discharged from Sunshine Hospital on Thursday afternoon.
Brimbank Crime Investigation Unit detectives are also investigating other incidents allegedly involving Price on Thursday.
In the first incident, police allege a man approached a Sunshine man on the HV McKay pedestrian bridge near Devonshire Road, about 10am, and allegedly assaulted him and took his mobile phone.
The 26-year-old victim was taken to Sunshine Hospital with unspecified injuries.
Following the assault and robbery, police said the same offender tried to carjack a vehicle belonging to a 77-year-old Braeside man on McCracken Street. The alleged offender fled on foot after the carjacking attempt failed.
Word co-chief executive Craig Moulton said he was “in disbelief” over the rape incident and was doing everything possible to support the staff who were working at the Sunshine shop on Thursday morning.
“Their physical and emotional health is more important than business and we’ll do what we can to help them through this horrific experience,” he said.
The two staff members who were on duty during the alleged attack were “doing OK” under the circumstances, he said.
Mr Moulton declined say to whether the victim of the alleged assault was a member of staff.
“We’ve never had an attack or an offensive experience in one of our stores,” he said of the Christian chain.
“We’re about helping people and building life and restoring people. For it to happen in our environment it’s very distressing to us … I’m just horrified.”
Mr Moulton said his thoughts and prayers were with Masa’s family.
“I just can’t believe someone completely innocent, unrelated to the circumstance, has been a victim of such a horrific thing and they’ve done nothing wrong,” he said.
“It’s just a really bad 24 hours in Victoria.”
The company provided counselling for all staff and family members involved in the ordeal and the Sunshine store will be closed until staff were able to return to work, he said.
Mr Moulton praised Salvation Army workers based next door to the bookshop for their “exceptional help in the situation”.
Daniel Clarkson, an employee at a nearby shop, said police cordoned off the bookshop on Thursday for most of the day, and forensic officers were on the scene.
“It’s awful, it’s dreadful,” Mr Clarkson said.
Police had approached a gym nearby for security vision from outside their store, but Fairfax Media was told the gym had no cameras facing outside.
Renee Bonetti, who works at a nearby pet shop, said she had not noticed anything yesterday, but said she feared for her safety.
“It’s scary, so many of us who work here are female, now we’re scared at work. No one wants to walk at night,” Ms Bonetti said.
“But we want to know [what’s happening in the area]. I know it might be frightening but we want to know.”
The alleged rape was one of three separate incidents that Mr Price has been charged over that occurred on the morning before he handed himself in, and little more than a day after the alleged murder of the Doncaster teenager on Tuesday night.
Mr Price, who appeared in the Melbourne Magistrates Court on Friday morning, was also charged with robbing a 26-year-old man on a Sunshine footbridge at 10am, and an attempted carjacking of an elderly man on McCracken Street.
Mr Price has been charged with two counts of robbery and three counts of common assault, as well as rape, over the three incidents.
– With Priscilla Moca
This story first appeared in The Age
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