Australia offers big reward for "vampire" killer

Oct 25, 2009, 10:16 GMT

   Sydney - The search for a Melbourne underworld figure suspected of ordering the murder of a male prostitute intensified Sunday when police posted a reward of 1 million Australian dollars (900,000 US dollars) for information leading to his arrest.

   Mark Perry, who has been on the run for two years, is wanted in the execution-style killing of 28-year-old Shane Chartres-Abbott, just hours before the self-styled vampire was due in court to answer charges of rape and assault of Perry's former girlfriend.

   The woman, herself a prostitute, paid Chartres-Abbott for sex but ended up with part of her tongue bitten off in the 2003 assault.

   She told police the gigolo claimed to be a 200-year-old vampire who had been in Melbourne before it was built and who needed human blood to survive.

   There was speculation at the time Chartres-Abbott was gunned down in his driveway that he was silenced before he could reveal the names of the high-society Melbourne women who were his clients.

   His killer is serving a life sentence for the shooting, which police believe was ordered by Perry. They speculate the killing was prompted by his alleged concern that the trial could have exposed rich and famous sex-industry clients.