With AAP.
The man accused of raping and killing a woman who was found dead on a soccer field in Melbourne’s inner north has appeared in court.
Jaymes Todd, 19, from Broadmeadows, appeared in Melbourne Magistrate Court on Thursday charged with rape and murder, after handing himself into police on Wednesday night.
According to The Age, the accused “sat still and with his eyes downcast” as his lawyer told the court the 19-year-old has been diagnosed with autism and that his family had “indicated his condition makes him socially regressive”.
Legal Aid lawyer John Riordan argued Todd’s name and image should be suppressed in the media, but Magistrate Andrew McKenna gave the media permission to name him.
“He struggles in certain social environments and that may have a significant impact on him in custody,” Riordan said.
When she was found, paramedics were called to the scene but were unable to revive her.
On Thursday afternoon, the victim was identified as 22-year-old comedian Eurydice Dixon. The night she died, Dixon had performed a comedy set at the Highlander Bar in Melbourne, leaving the venue just after 10.30pm. Police allege that between the hours of 11pm and when she was found, Dixon was attacked and killed by a man she did not know.
Hours before Dixon’s identity was released, a 19-year-old man was charged with rape and murder. He had turned himself into police at Broadmeadows police station on Wednesday night, after CCTV images of a man in a grey hooded jumper were circulated by the media.
Police cannot yet say whether Dixon was murdered where her body was found, or whether she was moved after the attack. They haven’t established a timeline for the alleged murder, and are urging anyone who may have been in the area early in the day to contact police.
Just months before her death, Dixon had sold out Melbourne Comedy Festival shows held at the Highlander Bar.
James Forman, a staff member at the Highlander Bar, told Fairfax "[Dixon] might have just been starting out as a comedian but the audience did not reflect that."
"Everybody who knew her at the bar would comment on what a lovely and polite person she was. She was quite shy and very reserved, which was very strange, because once she got up on stage she'd have the attention of the whole room and they'd all be laughing.
"I think everybody was just always so impressed by that, but maybe it was how she incorporated that shyness and the quietness into her show which made her so special."
Top Comments
How much information are you allowed to release about the suspected killer? I think I have a decent amount of information.
Good question. We all want to know, but apparently there is some kind of suppression order in place.
I don't know the extent of it, but I understand his face is being blurred at least. All on the basis of his "being vulnerable" - the fkn irony.
I was able to get a fair bit of information on him just by looking for it. Honestly he didn't seem very capable of much even in terms of communication. Autism spectrum disorder, struggled to socialise, paroled father (but I'm not judging because I do not even know his crimes, it would be wrong to try to blame his family). I felt bad for him to be honest for a short time. Didn't seem like his life was all that great even before whatever happened, happened. The more I learnt though the more I kept thinking about how absolutely horrible this whole thing is. To be able to do something like this. I don't know what he deserves if he is truly guilty. But I know he doesn't deserve much.
I wonder how self aware he is. I'm sure he's reflecting on it all now. He has damaged so many peoples lives permanently by just taking what he thought he deserved and what he wanted. Absolutely no ability to consider how a terrified young woman spent the last moments of her life in a nightmare.
I have never felt so much pain for someone I never had the opportunity to meet. Eurydice's personality must have been so strong to resonate this deeply through us all.
I had the fortune of meeting her through comedy a handful of times.
She really was everything the community has been saying about her.
It was such an enormous shock to me to hear it was her yesterday - I was already upset about the news in general, as a woman, as a life-long Melbournian. But it suddenly felt very personal. I could not process it and cried quite a bit. I saw the front of the papers again afterwards and made the connection it was her being wheeled across the park. she will never get old. She will always be 22. It is so very surreal.
I cannot believe she is gone and we won't see her again, pacing the stage with a mic in hand, making quips. So young, so mature, a very bright, natural and authentic young lady. She'd been pursuing her comedy and performing passion for years. I will remember her that way, not for the brief awful moment that put her name in the news. That defines her killer.
They're supressing the information so his lawyers can't argue there's no way for him to have an unbiased jury/fair trial.