Batavia Motor Inne gates remain open following alleged sexual assault despite calls for closure

The gates of Geraldton’s abandoned Batavia Motor Inne have remained open, despite its owner saying they received a letter from the City of Greater Geraldton calling for the site to be closed off.

The call came after police alleged a 12-year-old girl was sexually assaulted by two men, Chad James Broad, 46, and George Windie, 39, at the building on March 15.

The Geraldton Guardian previously reported the owners of the Batavia Motor Inne said they had received a letter from the City on March 29 requesting the gates of the site be closed and locked, following the recent alleged incident.

“The City has reviewed the situation in light of the most recent serious incident on site and is now requesting that the gates be closed and locked as soon as the last people on site are removed,” the letter read, according to the owners.

As of Monday morning, the sites gates remain open, almost four weeks after the alleged assault.

Fencing was installed around the Batavia Motor Inne in late January, but a set of gates along Fitzgerald Street have remained open while the council and community services help homeless squatters find alternative accommodation.

Both the City of Greater Geraldton and Department of Communities have said the site’s gates should be closed.

The most recent alleged assault comes after Victorian man James Sbresni was jailed for five years for raping a 14-year-old girl at the site in June 2021, and another man, Norman Gilbert, pleaded not guilty to two counts of raping a woman there in December 2022.