Vic: House where baby found haven for drug addicts

AAP General News (Australia)
08-09-2004
Vic: House where baby found haven for drug addicts

By Renee Barnes

MELBOURNE, Aug 9 AAP - The abandoned house where kidnapped baby Montana was found was
a haven for drug addicts and squatters, neighbours said.

Police discovered the three-week-old girl in the front room of the derelict house on
Erskine Street in North Melbourne about 9am today, after a woman walking her dogs heard
the baby's cries.

Paramedics were called and Montana, who was deemed to be healthy, was transferred to
the Royal Children's Hospital.

The discovery follows her abduction on Saturday from a shopping centre car park in
Melbourne's west.

Neighbour Anthony Bishop, 25, said he had seen people, who could have been the couple
wanted for questioning over the kidnapping, at the house on Friday night.

"In the room where the baby was found I saw this couple of deros who were obviously
on drugs," he said.

"I'm not sure but that woman could have been the woman (wanted for questioning), I'd
have to see the man again."

Mr Bishop said he'd been trying to get the council to demolish the house "for years".

The single storey, weatherboard house in which the baby was found, had been run down
for almost two years, neighbours said today.

The windows were smashed and the rear of the house was gutted in a fire after squatters
took up residence last year.

Another neighbour, who would not to be named, said he had seen paramedics carry the
baby from the house.

"I was just shocked," he said.

"You always see people coming and going from the house, you know druggies.

"I just couldn't believe someone would leave a baby there."

He said he had taken the dog for a walk between 5.30am and 6.15am and he could not
hear any baby's cries.

It was only when he went out to collect the garbage cans about 9am that he realised
there was a baby inside the house.

"I saw a policeman climb in through the window to get the baby," he said.

"They carried her out and I just couldn't believe it."

Montana had just been strapped into her car seat in the Brimbank Central Shopping
Centre in Deer Park, about 5.30pm on Saturday, when a man and woman assaulted her mother
Anita Ciancio and then took off with the baby in a dark-coloured sedan.

Ms Ciancio, 27, was hit with capsicum spray and a punch to the jaw moments before
her baby was stolen.

AAP rb/gfr/tma/sd

KEYWORD: BABY HOUSE (PIX AVAILABLE)

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