Not on this Block: Sydney News Corp tabloid gets The Block’s octagonal South Yarra hotel history wrong

The eight level, 34-room octagonal-shaped Hotel Saville in South Yarra sold recently with the whispered buyer being Channel 9’s The Block.

As there's no confirmation from the Colliers International selling agents Ben Baines and Ted Dwyer, Title Tattle was yet to be convinced either way.

But the exclusive speculative report by the Melbourne Herald Sun was worth mentioning, especially as The Block never confirm anything until they want it out there.

Source: Sydney Daily Telegraph 

Property Observer's initial article also noted, almost as an afterthought, that in 2002 the hotel was in the news after it was alleged Reservoir man Shane Chartres-Abbott violently raped a client in a hotel suite, with part of her tongue missing.

The gigolo Chartres-Abbott was arrested shortly after the attack with the victim's blood on his pants and her phone in his bag. With the forensic evidence, medical reports, the victim's testimony and witness statements, Chartres-Abbott presented a bizarre, headline-grabbing defence that he was a 200-year-old vampire.

Chartres-Abbott was subsequently executed outside his Reservoir home in 2003 as he left for the County Court during the rape trial.

But such a connection proved waywardly, irresistible for the Sydney Daily Telegraph who even made it their newsagency poster headline.

The journalists got it right, but the subsequent spruiking of the story including its front page banner didn't. All very wrong, as no murder took place at the South Yarra hotel. And the rape victim was not murdered.