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21 APRIL, 2026
St. Peeters’ Italian record triumph
Hillside local John St. Peeters recently set a new world record for staging the world’s largest Italian musical production.
Breaking world records isn’t new for Hillside local John Lo Piccolo, or as he’s better known, John St. Peeters. The creative director and multiinstrumentalist entertainer was recognised in 2022 for producing the largest Elvis Presley show globally. Last month he added another achievement to the Australian Book of Records after staging the largest Italian show in the world with 117 performers and singers. “It’s all surreal for me,” John said. The concert, Un Cuore Italiano, held at Albert Park on March 29, celebrated Italy’s musical history. After the performance, when announcing whether Lo Piccolo had broken the record, the compere stated that there were not 115 performers onstage as John had intended. “That freaked me out and the whole crowd kind of murmured,” Lo Piccolo said. “Then I put my head down and he said ‘you have 117, which is a world record’.
(Damjan Janevski) 546643_03
Continued: Page 11.
‘Burned it down’ By Tara Cosoleto, AAP A man who was promised $6000 to burn down a Sunshine North factory said he hoped the two men killed in the blaze were rapists so he could feel better about himself. Phoenix Darren John Tims’ covertly recorded comments were aired in the Victorian County Court on Thursday 17 April as he pleaded guilty to two counts of arson causing death. Tims and co-offender Atem Akoi Thon, both aged 20, admitted driving out to the Sunshine North factory in a stolen ute in the early hours of 23 February, 2024. Tims poured petrol at the entrance of the property and set it on fire before the two
men fled the scene. Hai Minh Nguyen, 41, and Phuc Tran, 48, were both sleeping in a neighbouring property when the blaze spread and killed them. The partners of the two men provided statements to the court on Thursday, describing their grief and hardship in the years that have followed. “There are no words that can truly capture the devastation, the emptiness and sheer agony I have endured,“ Mr Nguyen’s partner Thanh said. “The image of him being trapped in that blaze is a nightmare.” Tims and Thon did not intend to set fire to the other property and they did not know
there were people inside, prosecutor Jordan Johnston accepted. The two men had been promised $6000 by an unknown person if they firebombed the factory but they never received the money, the court was told. The day after the blaze, Tims, Thon and co-offender Semaj Cigobia, 20, set the stolen ute on fire about 50km away in Coimadai, near Bacchus Marsh. Police began covertly monitoring the offenders in July 2024 and recorded Tims saying he “burned the place down” and discussing the fact two men had died. “Hopefully they raped kids or some shit like that so I can feel better about myself,” he said in the recordings detailed in court.
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Tims’ barrister Sam Norton told the court his client had been using cocaine at the time of the offending. He said the 20-year-old was remorseful and had taken steps to better himself, including gaining employment and spending time with his son. Thon also pleaded guilty to two counts of arson causing death. Both Thon and Tims accepted they would be jailed, while Cigobia’s barrister Jennifer Clark submitted a community corrections order would be appropriate for her client. She told the court Cigobia, who pleaded guilty to assisting an offender, became involved because of loyalty to his friends. All three will be sentenced on 18 May.
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