Murder of Kylie Maybury
The Murder of Kylie Maybury, occurred on 6 November 1984 after she was first kidnapped and raped. Maybury was an Australian schoolgirl from Preston, an inner-city suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. The murder occurred on the same date as the 1984 Melbourne Cup Day; and she was nicknamed in the Melbourne tabloid newspaper The Sun News-Pictorial as the Cup Day Girl.
More than 30 years after her death, in June 2016 Victoria Police arrested and charged Gregory Keith Davies with the abduction, rape, and murder of Maybury. Davies later pleaded guilty to the murder and rape of Maybury and in December 2017 he was sentenced to life imprisonment with a non-parole period of 28 years.
Abduction and murder
Maybury lived with her younger sister, Rebecca, and their mother, Julie, in Gregory Grove. She was a primary school student in grade one and was enrolled in calisthenics.
On the afternoon of 6 November 1984, Maybury had been sent to a convenience store on Plenty Road to buy a bag of sugar, which she bought at around 5:30 p.m. She was last seen going home, carrying the sugar, and looking as if she were lost. Her mother and neighbour went looking for her at around 6:00 p.m., when a woman approached them saying that she'd seen a girl being driven away in a white Holden station wagon. Maybury's body was found in the gutter of Donald Street at about 12:45 a.m. the next morning by a fire brigade electrician, Neil Rickwood, but had not been there when police searched the street at 7:30 p.m.
She had died of asphyxiation while being raped and had suffered severe internal injuries, including vaginal trauma. The autopsy found that diazepam, a strong sedative, was in her body, suggesting that she had been drugged.
Investigation
Maybury's murder received significant media coverage.Maybury was interred at Fawkner Crematorium and Memorial Park. Her grandfather, John Moss, was a suspect, committing suicide in 1985. Her uncle, Mark Maybury, was similarly a suspect in the case; he committed suicide in jail in 1987. He was later found to be innocent of the crime, and is buried in the same cemetery as Maybury.
In the 1990s, Victorian Police focused their attention on Robert Arthur Selby Lowe, who had murdered Melbourne schoolgirl Sheree Beasley. Shortly before Maybury's murder, Lowe had been interviewed by police about offensive behaviour to young girls near Preston. DNA profiling later proved that Lowe was not responsible for Maybury's murder. Victoria Police began a new investigation into the murder among other cold cases in 2014, after media interest in the case led to numerous suspects being reported to the police.
Charges, committal and sentencing
In June 2016, 73-year-old Gregory Keith Davies was charged with the false imprisonment, rape and murder of Maybury, with a committal hearing for the case scheduled for May 2017. Davies had been interviewed by police two days after the murder during the original investigation. In 1970, he had bludgeoned a teenage girl with a hammer and told police he intended to rape her. At the time of the attack on Maybury, Davies lived in the area with his mother, and drove a white Holden HQ station wagon, but was removed from the investigation without giving a DNA sample because he gave an alibi.On 29 May 2017, Davies pleaded guilty to one charge of murder and one of rape, and asked for the false imprisonment charge to be taken into consideration. The following day, Davies was remanded into custody until a plea hearing on 21 September. On 23 July, Davies was attacked by another inmate while on remand, suffering serious burns from scalding water.
On 21 December 2017, Davies was sentenced by Justice Lex Lasry in the Supreme Court of Victoria to life imprisonment with a non-parole period of 28 years. With time in custody taken into account, Davies will be eligible for parole in June 2044; however, as he will be 101 years of age at that time, he will almost certainly spend the rest of his life in custody.