Anti-gambling activist’s son charged with murdering bookie

You’ve got to hand it to Australia, as its intersection of sports betting and law enforcement is rarely dull, and is generally good for a few major car crashes.

On Thursday, Aussie media reported that police had laid murder charges in the extremely cold case of Sydney bookmaker Charles Skarratt, who was found stabbed to death inside his garage three days before Christmas 1989.

Police reported that Skarratt (pictured right), a familiar face at Sydney’s greyhound racetracks, was attacked after stepping out of his car around 1am, after which he was bound, assaulted, stabbed and robbed of approximately $25k cash – the bookie’s take from the previous night’s racing.

The case had gone unsolved until Unsolved Homicide Squad detectives reopened the file last year. New DNA tests of some blood found at the crime scene matched a profile on file, leading to the arrest of the suspect on Thursday morning.