I re-read Bret Christian's Nov 2015 article that detailed the terrible (attempted) 1989 rape of the girl that described being escorted (by her friends) in an inebriated state to the carpark opposite the Cottesloe Hotel and that she had been placed in one of her friends vehicles, but had woken up in another vehicle with a person not known to her fondling her. Subsequently driven to Lakeside drive-in at Swanbourne were an
attempted rape occurred -- thankfully she escaped but was
stalked by the offender who had thrown her into the rear of his
panel van; and the offender already had the
tailgate opened. Note: could this girl's drink have been spiked ?
When I read about the
tailegate that prompted me to do a bit of research on panel vans to see which models came with a tailgate.
It seems the
Holden Sandman and other Holden panel vans came with a tailgate, whereas Ford panel vans came with rear 'french doors' at the rear. These are dual doors that open outwards from the centre; whereas the Holden rear access to panel vans was via a tailgate that lowered down which became a very handy seat and allowed for an extended lay-down area, and an upward swinging window.
I read with interest, that some models of
Holden Sandman were supplied withwhat has been described (in the below Wiki article) as a 'velvet mattress'; but I consider this should be described as 'velour'.
Could the 1995 Rowe Park rapist have owned a Holden Sandman panelvan and gotten mentally attached to 'velour' hence a later purchase was the Holden Commodore VS Series 1 Berlina with
velour upholstery trim. BTW the use of the word 'trim' in Bret's December 2015 article is interesting, because upholstery 'trim' is not a phrase used to describe the total seat upholstery; it is in fact, the 'side trim' upholstery, with the bum-on-seat area described differently which is exactly how the upholstery was in the Berlina photos I posted the other day.
I have read nothing that states the Rowe Park / Karrakatta victim actually identified the panel van, other than the colour of vehicle, but there is lots of information out there that details she was placed in to the rear of the van, therefore it may have been possible to identify the make of vehicle by what she could recall about the rear access to the vehicle. ie over a tailgate.
I also stumbled across an article that reminded me about something I had totally forgotten about; and that is Holden used to have a manufacturing plant in Mosman Park -- it closed in 1972. I wonder if they assembled panel vans at any stage ? I am not indicating the perp may have worked there, but a family member perhaps.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panel_van_(Australia)
