By Priscilla Moca and Tammy Mills
The Albion man accused of the murder of Doncaster schoolgirl Masa Vukotic allegedly embarked on a crime spree in Sunshine in the hours before his arrest, according to police.
Sean Christian Price, 31, has been charged with the digital rape of a woman at the Word Christian bookshop on Harvester Road at 11.20am on Thursday, half an hour before he handed himself in at Sunshine police station.
The 41-year-old victim was discharged from Sunshine Hospital that afternoon.
Word co-chief executive Craig Moulton said he was “in disbelief” and doing everything possible to support the staff who were working at the Sunshine shop at the time.
“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 to say whether the victim was a staff member.
He said the company was providing counselling for all staff and family members involved in the ordeal and the store would be closed until staff could return to work.
Mr Moulton praised Salvation Army workers based next door to the bookshop for their “exceptional help in the situation”.
Police approached a nearby gymnasium for any security vision outside the bookshop at the time of the attack, but the gym’s cameras were not facing that direction.
Renee Bonetti, who works at a nearby pet shop, said she feared for her safety.
“So many of us who work here are female. Now we’re scared at work; no one wants to walk at night,” she said. “But we want to know [what’s happening in the area]. I know it might be frightening, but we want to know.”
Brimbank crime investigation unit detectives are also investigating other incidents allegedly involving Price on the same day.
They said that in the first incident, a knife was pulled on a Sunshine man and his phone was stolen on the HV McKay pedestrian bridge near Devonshire Road about 10am.
The 26-year-old victim was taken to Sunshine Hospital with unspecified injuries.
A man also unsuccessfully tried to carjack a vehicle belonging to a 77-year-old Braeside man on McCracken Street.
Price appeared in the Melbourne Magistrates Court on March 20, charged with two counts of robbery, three of common assault and rape. He was remanded to appear again on June 26.
