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Hoddle Street Shootings

On the evening of 9 August 1987 19-year-old Julian Knight killed seven people and wounded nineteen in Hoddle Street, Clifton Hill, after drinking about 10 pots of beer in the nearby Royal Hotel. He did not know any of his victims and fired randomly at passing cars, a motorcycle and pedestrians. In 1988 he pleaded guilty to seven murder charges and was sentenced to life imprisonment with a 27-year minimum. A number of personal problems and expulsion from Duntroon Military College in July caused his vulnerable personality to snap on the night of the killings.

Chris Coney