ERROL PARKER | Editor-at-large | Contact
Just after lunch today, a local real estate agent drove a van packed full of placards and empty single-use plastic bottles into The Betoota Advocate‘s reception area.
Police were called a short time later and they arrested Stephen John O’Kelly, who was unconscious behind the wheel following the impact.
It’s understood by The Advocate that the van was fitted with a defective Takata airbag and when it deployed, a chunk of metal was shot through the 45-year-old’s forehead and out through the top of the spine – but luckily the projectile missed the brain.
With the alleged perpetrator now under police supervision at the Royal Betoota Base Hospital, police investigators can now look for a motive for the crime.
Mr O’Kelly is alleged to have written a number of letters to The Advocate’s editor, Clancy Overell. It’s understood by police that it was Mr O’Kelly who sent Clancy a bullet in the mail earlier this year which was accompanied by a letter that referred to Mr Overell as a ‘red-faced piece a shit’ and a ‘centrist coward’.
Police also allege it was Mr O’Kelly who sent a number of emails to our reporter over their coverage of the real estate industry in our town. In the emails, Mr O’Kelly is said to have referred to this masthead’s criticism of the real estate industry as ‘one-eyed’ and ‘unfair’ and that there are lots of great real estate agents out there.
In April of this year, a suspicious white powder was sent to The Betoota Advocate’s newsroom, which police initially thought was anthrax but after a short investigation, it was discovered that the white powder was just some cocaine that sports editor Imran Gashkori had ordered on the dark web.
The investigation continues.
More to come.
