Man charged with murder after Croydon North assault

Adam Brown was a Deakin University lecturer in communications. Picture: SOCIAL MEDIA.

By Mikayla van Loon

Homicide Squad detectives have charged a man believed to be a Deakin University lecturer following the death of a woman in Croydon North on Saturday night.

The senior lecturer in communication, Adam Brown, was charged with murder on Monday 2 May following his arrest on Saturday night.

According to other reports, the 40-year-old has been remanded after facing the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court yesterday afternoon and will reappear in front of a judge in September.

This comes after emergency services were called to an address in Patrick Avenue about 10.15pm on 30 April, where paramedics attempted to revive 35-year-old Chen Cheng.

The circulation of the hashtags #sayhername and #hernameis have shown the outrage of another death of a woman in a home setting.

Comments have also started emerging on social media from current and past Deakin University students expressing their shock.

“I wanted to say something, but don’t know what to say. I am shocked by the news and hope my fellow students and staff are doing ok,” Bec Sennett wrote on Twitter.

“As a past student at Deakin University, it shocks me to think this is acceptable in 2022,” Jess O’Neill wrote.

Other comments have shown support for the staff and students who have been taught or worked with Brown at Deakin University.

“I hope the Deakin Uni staff and students get the support they need this week. A lot will be second guessing themselves this morning,” one comment read.

Lecturers and staff at Deakin have also taken to social media to reach students wanting or needing support or counselling.

The hastags #ALM101 and #ALM102 have been connecting students who studied media and communications subjects at the university, with one student posting, “I studied #ALM101 at the end of 2021, hearing the news today has left me shocked and disgusted. Male violence is so ugly, so devastating and so unnecessary – I’m lost for words and it breaks me that we’ve lost another woman from DV this year.”