Russell Street bombing

On 27 March 1986, a car bomb hidden in a stolen Holden Commodore exploded outside the Russell Street Police complex in Melbourne, Victoria. The blast caused more than A$1 million in damage and, according to reporting by The Age, was intensified by the building's open-floor design, which channelled shrapnel through the offices. Police Constable Angela Rose Taylor, aged 21, was seriously injured and died of her wounds on 20 April 1986, becoming the first Australian policewoman killed in the line of duty. Twenty-two other people were injured in the explosion.

The investigation established that gelignite and detonators used in the bomb had been stolen from the Tyrconnel Mine at Blackwood on 7 October 1985, and that the Commodore used as the bomb vehicle had been stolen on 25 March 1986. Detectives initially considered a possible link to a series of attacks on Family Court judges in Sydney but ruled this out. A false extortion attempt by a caller, later identified and convicted for hindering the investigation, briefly diverted inquiries. Investigators also examined and ultimately moved away from a suspect identified through witness description before a breakthrough came via a stolen Daimler Sovereign linked to a stolen silver Commodore, a Donvale bank ram-raid, and matching drill marks on vehicle identification numbers.

Surveillance of Peter Reed and his associates led to a raid on Reed's Kallista home on 25 April 1986, during which Reed allegedly fired on police, wounding Detective Sergeant Mark Wylie before being shot and wounded himself. Evidence recovered at Reed's home, including gelignite, detonators, and drilled firearms, was linked to the bombing materials. Fingerprint evidence connected Craig Minogue and his brother Rodney Minogue to items found at the scene and at associate Karl Zelinka's home, where bomb-component matches were also recovered. Zelinka's account led detectives to Stanley Taylor, an associate of the Minogue brothers known as "Stan the Man." Rodney Minogue later told police that he, his brother, Reed, and Taylor were responsible for the bombing, naming Taylor as its organiser.

At the conclusion of a six-month trial in 1988 in the Supreme Court of Victoria, Stanley Taylor and Craig Minogue were convicted of murder and other offences related to the bombing. Peter Reed and Rodney Minogue were acquitted of bombing-related offences, though Reed was convicted of offences arising from the shootout at his arrest and sentenced to 12 years' imprisonment. Taylor was sentenced to life imprisonment with no minimum term, the first such sentence in Victoria, and died in prison at age 79. Craig Minogue received life imprisonment with a 28-year minimum term; the Victorian Parliament has since twice legislated to keep him imprisoned beyond his parole eligibility. Detective Sergeant Mark Wylie, who was shot during Reed's arrest, later left the police force and died by suicide in July 2014.