mmg.com.au

JANUARY

Neville Mansfield was jailed for 16 years for the brutal rape of a woman in her Shepparton home in 1993.

He entered the home heavily disguised, tied up an elderly babysitter and two children aged six and 11, before attacking the mother.

DNA evidence discovered in 2007 led to a trial, where Mansfield was found guilty of charges including five counts of rape and four counts of unlawful imprisonment.

Former Shepparton police officer Frank Eyre failed in his third bid for an inquest into the shooting deaths of his son Constable Damian Eyre and colleague Constable Steve Tynan.

A ruling by the Victorian State Coroner said there were no new facts to warrant an investigation. Constables Eyre, 20, and Tynan, 22, were ambushed and murdered on October 12, 1988.

A teenager was found not guilty of the attempted murder of Kialla resident Bill Hickford pleaded guilty to aggravated burglary and theft from the same incident.

The boy, aged 17 at the time, ws sentenced to 182 days in a youth justice centre. Mr Hickford stabbed more than a dozen times on the morning of December 17, 2010, when he confronted two young men who broke into his home.

A good Samaritan was bashed and his car stolen after he agreed to take a man to see his brother in hospital.

Joel Ray Kneebone, 23, knocked on the door of the Dookie man’s house at 1.30am on Saturday, January 28 and asked to be driven to Shepparton.

The man said he would take Kneebone as far as Congupna, but was assaulted before they got there.

Kneebone pleaded guilty in November and was given a two-month suspended sentence.

For the rest of the year’s major crime stories, grab a copy of today’s News.