Zoe Buttigieg 'brutally raped and murdered' after alcohol and drug-fuelled party
Zoe Buttigieg was allegedly brutally raped and murdered, after her mother had invited friends over for an all-night alcohol and drug-fuelled party.
Bowe Maddigan has pleaded guilty to the alleged murder and committing an indecent act on the 11-year-old girl in Melbourne’s Supreme Court.
He had previously entered a not guilty plea to one count of murder and two counts of sexual assault at the Wangaratta Magistrates Court in May.
The Wangaratta schoolgirl was found dead last October.
Zoe's mother Janelle Saunders had invited friends over to the house for what was claimed to be a marathon all-night party.
Ms Saunders told Wangaratta Magistrates Court that she met Maddigan a week earlier through a mutual friend.
The 30-year-old Mildura man had only been released from prison a week prior to Zoe's death.
Ms Saunders claimed she had been drinking bourbon and coke and smoking cannabis with her friends and Maddigan for 12-hours straight on the morning Zoe was murdered.
The young girl was sleeping in the lounge room while the group partied.
After drinking, Ms Saunders went to bed about 7am on October 25 and woke four hours later to find her daughter's lifeless body.
Zoe had been brutally raped and murdered.
Ms Saunders said in court that Maddigan was rambling on at the party and "very attention seeking"
"He was full of stories and he was just rambling and rambling and you couldn't get a word in,” she said.
Nobody saw Maddigan in the house after 5am that morning.
Hours later he was arrested, found walking barefoot, dressed only in cargo shorts and a singlet, along the Hume Highway.
One 30-year resident of the street where Zoe lived, Heather Mann, said the area attracted 'dangerous people'.
"It's required intervention orders," she told Daily Mail.
"Alcohol and ice and the two together are a problem here."
Maddigan will face a plea hearing at Wangaratta Magistrates’ Court on November 11.
