Lloyd Maurice Crosbie

Case details

Lloyd Maurice Crosbie was convicted in Victoria.

Timeline

• March 11, 2003 — The Supreme Court sentenced Lloyd Maurice Crosbie to two life jail terms with a 30-year non-parole period.
• August 19, 2002 — Lloyd Maurice Crosbie pleaded guilty in the Victorian Supreme Court to 2 counts of murders.
• August 18, 2001 — Melissa Maahs, 18, was stabbed while she slept next to Lloyd Maurice Crosbie; Crosbie then attacked Kay Maahs, 54, and stabbed her; he later fled to Wangaratta.
• August 20, 2002 — Police reported that the bodies had not been discovered until the morning of August 20, 2002.
• October 29, 2002 — Lloyd Maurice Crosbie, described as a sexual sadist, pleaded guilty to the murder of his girlfriend and her mother.
• December 3, 2003 — Lloyd Maurice Crosbie was jailed for life.

Background

Lloyd Maurice Crosbie had a lifelong history of getting pleasure from violence and cruelty. He had a history of enjoying “death and destruction” and was described by a psychiatrist as a “sexual sadist”. Defence lawyer Martin Amad said a psychiatrist found that Crosbie was fit to plead and was not psychotic, but he was a diagnosed sexual sadist and self-mutilator who heard voices urging him to “hurt things”. Lloyd Maurice Crosbie was in a protection program because other prisoners could not tolerate his crimes.

Justice Kellam adjourned the case for a pre-sentence report to be obtained.

The offence

Lloyd Maurice Crosbie attacked his girlfriend and her mother with a knife at the girlfriend’s house in Morwell.

After the killing of his girlfriend, he sexually assaulted her body.

Melissa Joy Maahs, 18, was stabbed repeatedly in a callous, brutal and frenzied attack. The court was told that Crosbie began the attack by stabbing his girlfriend as she slept next to him in their bed. Melissa Maahs screamed: “What are you doing?” Crosbie told police he replied, “I'm sorry, but I have to”, before resuming the stabbing. Justice Kellam said Crosbie broke off the tip of a knife while attacking Melissa Maahs.

Crosbie attacked Melissa Maahs’s mother, Kay Maahs, 54, as she approached. Justice Kellam said Crosbie smashed two porcelain ornaments over Kay Maahs’s head, hit her with a frying pan and thrust a clothes iron into her face. The court was told that Crosbie cut Mrs Maahs’ throat before bashing her with two porcelain ornaments until they broke, a frying pan until it buckled, and then an iron.

When he believed Melissa Maahs was dead, Crosbie sexually assaulted her body, placing pornographic magazines over it, Justice Kellam said.

The court was told that an aggravating feature of the murder of Melissa Joy Maahs was that after the killing, Crosbie “degraded and defiled” her body.

Investigation

Homicide detectives believed the women were murdered late the previous week but their bodies were not discovered until the morning by a male relative. Police had not been able to establish what weapon had been used.

Detective Inspector Brian Rix of the homicide squad described the scene at the Dayble Street house as horrific and said the women had suffered terrible injuries. There were signs of a struggle throughout the house. Police were unable at that stage to establish a motive or verify if the women knew their killer. It was too early to tell whether the house had been broken into or if robbery was involved.

Detective Inspector Rix appealed for anyone who might have any details on the women’s last movements to contact police.

Arrest

Lloyd Maurice Crosbie fled to Wangaratta and was arrested two days later.

Trial

Lloyd Maurice Crosbie pleaded guilty in the Victorian Supreme Court to 2 counts of murders on the 19-8-2002.

In the Supreme Court, Chief Crown prosecutor Bill Morgan-Payler, QC, told the court that Crosbie should be jailed for life for the protection of the community and because the crimes were so “heinous and grave”.

Chief Crown prosecutor Bill Morgan-Payler, QC, said that without warning Crosbie began stabbing Melissa Maahs with a skinning knife as she slept beside him about 3am on August 18 last year. Melissa Maahs woke and screamed and tried to defend herself before Crosbie attacked her mother, Kay Maahs, 54.

Chief Crown prosecutor Bill Morgan-Payler, QC, said Crosbie “degraded and defiled” Melissa Maahs’ body after the killing. The court was told that Crosbie failed to have Justice Murray Kellam suppress the fact that he had sex with Ms Maahs’ body after he had killed her.

Lloyd Maurice Crosbie said he would be killed in prison if that fact was published because it was a “simple fact of prison life... that no one is safe”. He said he was in a protection program because other prisoners could not tolerate his crimes, and said: “I Would, be killed if, I was in mainstream.”

Justice Kellam said Crosbie’s concerns had to be balanced with 'the necessity for open courts and open justice. In refusing the application, the judge said prison authorities had a “duty of care” to protect prisoners and it was not necessary to prohibit some details to afford such protection.

Defence lawyer Martin Amad said although Crosbie was fit to plead and was not psychotic, he was a diagnosed sexual sadist and self-mutilaior who heard voices urging him to “hurt things”. Martin Amad said Crosbie and Ms Maahs were “quite a loving couple” and that Crosbie had told police that she was “the only giri who ever loved me”. He urged Justice Kellam to fix a minimum term because Crosbie had pleaded guilty, fully cooperated with police, lacked major prior convictions, and had had a sad and disturbed background.

Sentencing

The Supreme Court jailed Lloyd Maurice Crosbie for life. He was set a 30-year minimum jail term.

Justice Murray Kellam concluded he received sexual excitement from murdering the two women in a sadistic way. Justice Kellam said Melissa Maahs, 18, and her mother, Kay, 54, were stabbed repeatedly in a callous, brutal and frenzied attack at their Morwell home on August 18, 2001. The judge said Crosbie had begun the attack by stabbing his girlfriend as she slept next to him in their bed, then attacked Mrs Maahs before returning to her daughter.

The judge said he also smashed two ornaments over Kay Maahs’s head, hit her with a frying pan and thrust a clothes iron into her face. Justice Kellam said that a year earlier, when Crosbie was reported for smashing up his home, a policeman had said Crosbie was angry and disturbed.

Justice Kellam said Crosbie appeared fixated with killing someone so he could be with his brothers. Crosbie told doctors he missed his two brothers, who were in prison, and he wanted to kill people by slashing their throats or putting a knife in their temple.

Justice Kellam said one of Crosbie’s older brothers was in jail for attempted murder and the other in a secure psychiatric facility after being found not guilty of murder because of mental impairment.

Justice Kellam said that during Crosbie’s early adolescence, his brothers had introduced him to violent videos and torturing and killing animals. He said Crosbie had had a home life described as disorganised and an environment of often frank neglect.

After the murders, Crosbie told one psychiatrist he had always been fascinated with death, destruction and sex.

Justice Kellam said Crosbie heard voices before the murders warning him the two women were conspiring to trap him, but there were no voices on the night of the killings.

Justice Kellam also addressed open courts and a duty of care during the proceedings about publication suppression.

Outcome

Lloyd Maurice Crosbie was sentenced to life in prison (minimum 30 years) on March 11, 2003 after pleading guilty in the Victorian Supreme Court to 2 counts of murders.

The sentence comprised 2 life jail terms and 30 years non parole.

Aftermath

Outside court, Doug Maahs, Melissa Maahs’s father and the estranged husband of Kay Maahs, said he believed Crosbie should have been shot, not jailed. Doug Maahs said: “You never expect this,” he said.