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The Snowtown Murders The names Snowtown victims had to use, court told By Chief Court Reporter MARK STEENE 18oct02 THE alleged Snowtown murderers demanded their victims call them "Lord Sir" and "God" as they tortured and killed them, the Supreme Court heard yesterday. The court also heard that one of the men charged over the murders, John Justin Bunting, 36, played the hit album Throwing Copper, by the US band Live, during some of the attacks. These details were among allegations made by the deputy Director of Public Prosecutions, Wendy Abraham, QC, surrounding nine of the alleged murders. Ms Abraham said James Vlassakis, 22, who has been jailed for 26 years after pleading guilty to four of the murders, would tell the court of the murder of his half-brother Troy Youde, 21, in late August, 1998. During the alleged attack, Ms Abraham said, Mr Bunting demanded Mr Youde call him "Lord Sir" and his co-accused Robert Joe Wagner, 30, "God". Mr Bunting has pleaded not guilty to 12 counts of murder between 1992 and 1999 while Wagner has pleaded not guilty to eight counts of murder and one count of assisting offenders. Wagner has already pleaded guilty to three counts of murder. Ms Abraham said Mr Youde was also required to come up with names for Vlassakis and another co-accused, Mark Ray Haydon, 43, deciding on "Master" and "Chief Inspector" respectively. Ms Abraham said Mr Youde was attacked in the home he shared with Mr Bunting and Vlassakis at Murray Bridge. She said Mr Youde was beaten by his four attackers with clubs while he was asleep. She said he was then handcuffed and taken to the bathroom. "This is where it is alleged he was ultimately murdered, but not before the accused tortured him," she said. Ms Abraham said Mr Youde was placed in the bath, repeatedly beaten about the genitals and had his toe crushed with a pair of pliers before Wagner used a tyre lever to strangle him with a piece of rope. Ms Abraham said that during the attack Mr Bunting played the Live album, something he repeated during the later murders of Fred Brooks, 18 and David Johnson, 24. Ms Abraham said Mr Youde was eventually found dismembered and mutilated in a plastic drum at Snowtown. Ms Abraham alleged that about three weeks after the murder of Mr Youde, Mr Bunting, Wagner and Vlassakis also murdered 17-year-old Fred Brooks, the son of Mr Bunting's then girlfriend. She alleged that before the attack Mr Bunting told Vlassakis that Mr Brooks was "dirty", a paedophile and "needed to go to the clinic". Mr Brooks, she said, was also handcuffed and taken to the bathroom before the Live album was again played. She said Mr Brooks received electric shocks to the penis and testicles, was burnt up the nostril and in the ear with a cigarette, had his toe crushed with a pair of pliers, was injected with water and had burning sparklers placed in his penis. It is alleged he eventually choked to death on his gag. "Fred Brooks was told to call Bunting `Lord Sir'. Wagner `God'. Vlassakis `Master'," Ms Abraham said. The trial is continuing. Source/Publisher: http://www.theadvertiser.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5936,5309020^2682,00.html
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