Police at the scene in Glenroy where Antonio Loguancio is holed up inside a house. Picture: Ian Currie Source: Herald Sun
VICTORIA'S most wanted fugitive is tonight cornered by police at a house in Melbourne's north.
Antonio ''Mad Dog'' Loguancio is believed to be holed up inside the property on Justin Ave, Glenroy, and refusing to surrender to police.
The entire street has been sealed off and residents have been ordered out of neighbouring properties.
A press conference will be held at 9:30pm.
Shocked residents stood on the street tonight as the full scale of the situation became clear.
One man, who claimed to know Loguancio, said he wouldn't give up without a fight.
''I'm staying here to see what happens,'' he said. ''It won't be pretty.
Police at the scene in Glenroy where Antonio Loguancio is holed up inside a house. Picture: Ian Currie
''He's not going back to jail, he told me that.''
It's understood the man, who would not be named, had already been interviewed and released by police.
Sources suggested Loguancio was by himself but it was not clear whether or not he was armed.
Special Operation Group officers arrived at the house just after 7pm.
Residents reported hearing police use a megaphone to urge Loguancio to come out.
One neighbour, Amhed Ali, said it was a scary situation.
Antonio Loguancio. Picture: Victoria Police
''I was inside, I heard (them) yelling `Antonio come out'.
''I hopped under my bed because I thought I was going to get shot.’’
A police source told the Herald Sun officers were prepared to wait it out and were not doing anything in a hurry.
Police had earlier in the day urged Loguancio to come forward and hand himself in.
Assistant Commissioner Steve Fontana said investigators believed Loguancio was still in Melbourne.
Mr Fontana said Loguancio had become agitated at some of the media reporting since police went public yesterday with a plea to find him.
Police are appealing for help from the public as the search for a dangerous criminal continues around Heidelberg, Victoria.
He said there were concerns for Loguancio, his associates, police and members of the public.
“We’d like to resolve this matter peacefully,” Mr Fontana said.
“Yes, we are concerned. We’re asking him to calm down and contact police.”
Mr Fontana had said officers were in touch with Loguancio, dubbed Mad Dog.
Police had appealed for him to hand himself without incident.
He said Loguancio was in an unstable psychological condition, fluctuating between comments about self-harm and threats to the public and police.
"He is quite agitated," Mr Fontana told 3AW.
"Our focus is really on just trying to get Antonio to give himself up."
Mr Fontana said police had initiated the contact, but he would not reveal how.
"We have been in communication with him at various stages during the night," he said.
"We don't know where he is. We know that he hasn't gone bush or anything like that, but I won’t go into detail.
"But we don't know exactly where he is."
Loguancio, 40, was on bail on weapons and drugs charges when he allegedly attacked his de facto at the weekend.
But those charges were not enough to land him back in jail for breaching a court supervision order under the Serious Sexual Offenders Act.
A warrant has now been issued for his arrest for breaching the order, made last March after his parole for rape expired.
A judge then found he presented a danger of committing further sex crimes.
Supervision orders can be imposed on criminals thought to be an unacceptable risk of committing further sex crimes.
There are no equivalent supervision orders for violent offenders.
Police believe Loguancio may be in the Heidelberg, Dandenong or inner city areas, and may be driving a 1998 blue Ford Fairmont sedan, registered ZAY-968.
Senior police defended their decision not to go public about Loguancio's disappearance until five days after the attack on his partner.
Commander Doug Fryer said police had been confident of arresting him quickly, as he was a "creature of habit".
The new Victoria Police fugitive squad has been assigned to find him.
"Mr Loguancio has a significant history with Victoria Police; indeed, he has a significant criminal history," Mr Fryer said.
Loguancio had been due to face a magistrate this month on more than 10 charges, including assaulting police.
In October, he was allegedly caught carrying a controlled weapon. In November he was nabbed for possessing and carrying a controlled weapon.
In January more charges involving weapons, assaulting police and cannabis possession were laid, after an incident in which police used capsicum spray to subdue him.
He allegedly attacked an officer in a street confrontation in Melbourne's north.
Warrants have been issued for the alleged assault and the breach of the supervision order, which was a failure to comply with drug-testing conditions.
Loguancio's supervision order was to last five years, but it can be reviewed after three years.
A former police officer who had dealings with Loguancio was surprised that the charges in recent months did not see him locked up under the supervision order.
"People are being paid big dollars to stop this occurring," he said.
Apart from his rape convictions, Loguancio also has at least 22 convictions for assault-related offences.
The State Government said last night there were no plans to introduce supervision orders for violent offenders.
A government spokesman, James Talia, said violent criminals could already be given longer-than-usual prison sentences to protect the public.
"Extended Supervision Orders were developed to respond to the unique pathology of serious sex offenders," he said.
Loguancio fought the strict conditions the Corrections Department had sought to impose under the supervision order.
It asked that he live at the so-called "Village of the Damned" at Ararat, which houses other rapists and paedophiles on supervision orders.
There he could have been ordered to wear a monitoring bracelet.
It urged a ban on visits to his home or overnight stays by women, without parole board permission.
But Judge Jane Patrick, who made the order on March 16, said the condition was "too wide, too vague, too restrictive and impractical".
She said that it would not prevent his re-offending outside of his own residence.
Judge Patrick said she could not be satisfied Loguancio was a psychotic sexual sadist, but there was no doubt that the order was needed.
"The likelihood is, in my view, that future sexual offending would involve rape or other non-consensual sexual activity accompanied by violence," Judge Patrick said.
Corrections Victoria said the state had one of the nation's toughest post-sentence supervision schemes, and "as soon as the department received evidence that there may be an escalated risk, it fast-tracked a warrant for Mr Loguancio's arrest".
- with Mark Buttler, Elissa Hunt and Anthony Dowsley
