By Hannah Hammoud
The graffiti artist behind the “Pam the bird” tags plastered across Melbourne city landmarks was working alone, police say.
A 21-year-old Yarraville man is facing more than 50 criminal charges, including criminal damage, burglary, shop theft and theft of a motor vehicle. He will appear in court on Friday afternoon.
‘Pam the Bird’ graffiti on the side of the shot tower in Clifton Hill on Friday.Credit: Chris Hopkins
In one of the most high-profile incidents, police allege the man scaled and defaced the heritage-listed Flinders Street station clock tower on July 10 last year.
It’s alleged he is also responsible for graffiti plastered across the rail network as well as the “Cheese Stick” column on CityLink, the Nine building in Docklands, and concrete silos on Mercer Street in Geelong.
Police said the latest incident was on January 20, where “Pam” appeared across the Novotel Hotel in South Wharf.
At a press conference on Friday, Detective Sergeant Jason Wombwell said police believed the man was operating alone.
“We believe one person is responsible for that bird, and that person is in custody and has been charged with those offences,” he said.
Wombwell said police had been tracking the alleged offender for “quite some time”, and it was “old-fashioned, hard police work” that led to his arrest.
The man has also been charged over an incident in Footscray where an allegedly stolen car was driven through the front window of Nando’s in Barkly Street early on December 20.
Police estimate the total damage from the offending exceeds $100,000.
On Thursday, police executed search warrants at addresses in Yarraville and Abbotsford, where they seized multiple items including spray paint, illegal fireworks, abseiling equipment and property suspected to be the proceeds of crime.
A 39-year-old man from Abbotsford has also been charged with more than 20 criminal damage offences relating to the graffiti of suburban trains and the Docklands office building.
Wombwell said the second man was allegedly responsible for the ‘SROCK’ tag that accompanied some “Pam the bird” tags. The men were known to one another, he said.
“It’s probably a timely reminder to people, if you are considering doing this kind of act, we consider it to be criminal damage, and you will be held accountable, and we will investigate, and we will find you,” Wombwell said.
Both men were remanded to appear at Melbourne Magistrates’ Court on Friday.
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