This article appeared in a British Newspaper on Sep 26 2007 – Make what you will of it !
Emigrant killed child down under
A FORMER Bookham resident has pleaded guilty to the murder of an eight-year-old schoolgirl in Australia.
Dante Wyndham Arthurs lived in Guildford Road, Bookham, with his parents Ronald and Suzanne between 1993 and 2001.
Arthurs, 22, pleaded guilty to the murder, which has sent shockwaves through Australia.
The shock has been especially felt in the quiet Perth suburb of Canning Vale where eight-year-old schoolgirl Sofia Rodriguez-Urrutia Shu lived and went to school.
The schoolgirl’s naked body was discovered by her 14-year-old brother on June 26 2006.
Surrey Police have come under fire from Australian police and the murdered girl’s family following revelations that Arthurs was arrested in 2001, when he was just 16 years old, on suspicion of causing actual bodily harm to a 12-year-old girl in Bookham.
The allegation made by the girl was that on a busy main road during the daytime he grabbed her from behind and put his hands over her nose and mouth. She managed to struggle free.
Officers arrested Arthurs but he was never charged. He was meant to appear in an ID parade but this was postponed several times after objections from Arthurs’ solicitors.
According to Surrey Police, since the details of the case in Australia have emerged the officer who was overseeing the county’s ID suite has resigned and another officer has been given “words of advice”.
A spokesman for Surrey Police said: “Because there was no ID parade it was not proved that the offender was Arthurs and there was no evidence in his character or background to suggest he would offend or re-offend.”
A spokesman for Western Australian Police said: “Western Australian Police would have been alerted to this earlier if Surrey Police had contacted Interpol to help locate Dante Arthurs after he and his family left England.”
Sofia’s family are also angry at the new revelations. Their family priest Father Brian Rosling said: “Sofia’s father Gabriel is dismayed and angered about these new revelations of the 2001 assault on a little girl in England.”
Source – http://icsurreyonline.icnetwork.co.uk/surreymirror/surreyheadlines/tm_headline=emigrant-killed-child-down-under&method=full&objectid=19852079&siteid=50101-name_page.html#story_continue
Tags: James Bulger, Jon Venables, Robert Thomson