After a spate of machete attacks in Melbourne, and now a Victoria wide machete ban, this morning on Nova 100’s Jase & Lauren, Jase Hawkins was finally able to shared his experience after a violent incident took place near his family home.
Eighteen months ago, Jase witnessed the aftermath of a fatal stabbing in his neighbourhood involving a well-known local identity called Spiros. Jase had not been unable to speak about the incident until now due to ongoing legal proceedings which have now concluded.
Jase said: It was January 4, 2024 we were in between coming from the old radio station to this one… Typical Tuesday. We were living in Hampton east at the time… At about just after 12 o’clock, I’d gone back inside with two of the boys and where we used to live at sort of like a corner house, so, you know, sort of two streets, and down the side of our house we had a back gate, and my wife rang, and I could hear it in her voice, just the panic. And she said, hey, I pulled up just down the road from our gate. There’s a man lying in the gutter covered in blood… and I’ve come running out the back gate, and it was probably maybe 10 meters away. And I know this sounds crazy, at first I thought it was like a mannequin.
And as I approached the person, I could see it was a man. He was laying down half on the footpath, half into the gutter. His chest was covered in blood, his t-shirt. And I’ve looked at my wife, by this point, she was already ringing triple O. Lou drove past, threw me the phone, and she took off because we didn’t want our son to see him. So this point, it is just me and this gentleman. There is absolutely no one around. Poor guy’s covered in blood on his chest. He couldn’t really talk. I said to him, can you hear me? If you can blink. And he did. At this point, I was just trying to reassure him helps on the way. Had triple O on the phone. They said, police, ambulance are all on the way… And then as I lifted his shirt to try and help him, it was quite obvious that he’d been stabbed twice.
The gentleman passed away. The police tried everything they could. The man that passed away, his name was Spiros. He was a 46 year old, intellectually disabled gentleman, and all he was doing was his daily walk to the bus stop, because every day he would get the bus to Southland and walk around and say hi to everyone at the shops. Everyone in our area knew this guy. He was so gentle. He was such, like the stories I’ve heard from neighbours and everyone that knew him. He was a tragic North Melbourne supporter. I’ve gotten to know his family quite well. I’ve been around there a couple of times. His mum, Kathy, is, you know, and obviously they’re doing it incredibly hard. Their life will never be the same.
Clint Stanaway: The perpetrator, it has been processed by the courts?
Jase: That’s why I can finally talk about the person who took his life was a guy in his 20s. He was found not guilty due to mental impairment. Now he will serve time. He is in jail. He’ll eventually get moved to a facility, mental facility, but he’s locked up and he is off the streets… now here’s the issue. And this is the reason I want to bring it up. I was left pretty mad after that, because the innocence had been taken out of our street from that day… I didn’t let the kids ride their bikes around there. I had a front row seat to watch that family’s life change forever, and now that the court case is done, you know, the police have been so amazing to deal with, but we’ve managed to work out the events leading up to that. And this kid was not in a great emotional state and walked in and stole a butcher’s knife from a shop and then just roamed the streets. And that’s where he came across Spiros… Wrong place, wrong time, but like, when I found out he just went into a supermarket and stole a butcher’s knife, and that’s why I’m just like, yes, we’ve got him out of supermarkets. Yes, we bought the rule in that you can’t buy machetes now. But like you said, it’s got to be a national rollout. We’ve still got a long way to go, and I’m just sick of the red tape bullshit. Just get it done.
Lauren Phillips: Because there are so many innocent people that get caught up in these awful situations. And to Spiros’ family, who have given you their blessing to talk about this… and I know you’ve you’ve built, in such difficult circumstances, a bond with his family, but what we’re seeing on the streets is just terrifying. And I’m so sorry that this family have had to deal with this, and I’m sorry that you’ve had to deal with it. I know how much it’s affected you. I know how much it’s affected your family, and I can’t even begin so begin to imagine but how much it’s affected Spiros’ family.
Jase: Feel like we’ve come a long way, but we’ve got a long way to go. Let’s just get this city feeling safe again.