DPP v Dupas [2007] VSC 305

Supreme Court of Victoria|2007-08-27|Before: CUMMINS J

Criminal law and procedure - sentence - murder - repeat offender - victims' rights - life imprisonment with no minimum term.

1 Peter Norris Dupas: you have been found guilty by a jury of the murder at Fawkner Cemetery on Saturday, 1 November 1997 of Mersina Halvagis. The Fawkner Cemetery should have been a place of peace and of reflection; instead, in your hands, it was a place of murder.

2 Believing the cemetery to be a place of peace and of reflection, Ms Halvagis went there that Saturday afternoon to do honour to her grandmother. At 3.47pm in the Fawkner Cemetery Tearooms she purchased flowers and two bottles of Sprite. She drove her fiancee's car, which she had for the day, to the northern section of the cemetery close to Box Forest Road and parked at the Greek Orthodox section. She took her flowers and one bottle of Sprite and walked along Row M to her grandmother's grave, No. M33. There she intended to tend her grandmother's grave and to spend time in peace and reflection, doing honour to her grandmother. Her last actions were typical of her: a fine young woman, in a place of peace and beauty, thinking not of herself but of others, devoted, considerate and good. Then you struck.

3 Just as Ms Halvagis' presence at the cemetery was typical of her goodness, your presence at the cemetery was typical of your evil: cunning, predatory and homicidal. You were a strong man, with strong arms and hands. Ms Halvagis was but 45 kilograms in weight and 155 centimetres in height. You were armed with a lethal knife, until the moment of attack hidden in the jacket you were wearing. You had approached another woman, and were seen by others, in the area during the day. Your grandfather's grave was only 128 metres to the west of that of Ms Halvagis' grandmother. When Ms Halvagis walked alone along Row M, stopped at her grandmother's grave, and commenced to tend it, you attacked. From behind.

4 Your attack was swift, savage, and brutal; but directional. Ms Halvagis sought to turn and escape. Her slashed left fingers and hand show that she tried to defend herself from your knife. But she had no chance against your strength, your knife and your hate. You inflicted 33 stab wounds to Ms Halvagis. There were a further 20 incised wounds caused by your knife. Of the hundreds of photographs in this case, there are three which are especially haunting: photograph 55, showing Ms Halvagis' flowers and bottle of Sprite beside her grandmother's grave, M33; photograph 68, showing Ms Halvagis' body slumped between the graves M35 and M36; and photograph 175, of the autopsy of Ms Halvagis, showing the concentration of your knife attack on her upper body. So savage was the stabbing that it broke Ms Halvagis' bones: the lower sternum and the ninth thoracic vertebra. The knife passed through her lungs. It penetrated her neck and it cut through her heart. You left the body of Ms Halvagis slumped dead on gravesite M36, three sites from that of her grandmother. Then, with your bloody knife, you vanished from the scene. But it was your cunning that was to bring you undone. For you left no forensics at Fawkner - words which would come back to haunt you.

5 Throughout that Saturday Ms Halvagis' fiancée, Mr Angelo Georgievski, was working at the Target store at Epping. He finished there at 6.00pm. When that evening and into the night nothing was heard from Ms Halvagis, he commenced extensive searches for her. Ultimately he and his father found the vehicle he had provided to Ms Halvagis, in the dark and locked cemetery. He immediately called the police who arrived. The police and the Georgievskis entered the cemetery and shortly after 4.35am, twelve hours after you had murdered Ms Halvagis, in the darkened cemetery Mr Angelo Georgievski found her body. He reacted exactly as an innocent and loving person would.

6 Despite extensive investigation, for years you were not positively identified as the murderer.

7 The month before you murdered Ms Halvagis you had murdered, by knife attack, Ms Margaret Maher at Somerton. You were not identified as her murderer. Eighteen months after you murdered Ms Halvagis you murdered, by knife attack, Ms Nicole Patterson at Northcote. You were arrested for that murder three days later. You were convicted of the murder of Ms Patterson in August 2000 and sentenced to life imprisonment with no minimum term. You were convicted of the murder of Ms Maher in August 2004 and again sentenced to life imprisonment with no minimum term.

8 One of the persons who saw you in the Fawkner Cemetery on 1 November 1997 was Mrs Laima Burman. On 15 April 1998 at the St Kilda Road Police complex she created a computer image, exhibit J at the trial, which bore a striking likeness to you. Your conviction in August 2000 for the murder of Ms Patterson received extensive publicity. At the time Mrs Burman was on holiday in northern Victoria. On 16 August 2000 in a newsagency in Kyabram she saw the front page of the Melbourne Herald Sun which carried your photograph in relation to the murder of Ms Patterson. Mrs Burman recognised you as the man in the Fawkner Cemetery. The net was starting to close.

9 Mr Andrew Fraser, formerly a solicitor, in November 2001 pleaded guilty in the County Court to serious drug offences deriving from his cocaine addition. He was sentenced to seven years' imprisonment with a minimum term of imprisonment before eligibility for parole of five years. In January 2002 he was placed in a protection unit, Sirius East, of the Port Phillip Prison at Laverton. He was given the task of gardener. There was one other gardener in the same unit - you. At that time you had been sentenced for the murder of Ms Patterson at Northcote and were being investigated for the murder of Ms Maher at Somerton. You had legal issues in the Maher matter, including procedural requirements before you were charged with her murder. You sought to gain advantage of the former solicitor, Mr Fraser, being in your Unit, in relation to the Maher matter. One of your problems in the Maher matter was DNA - from a glove left at the scene. You discussed this with Mr Fraser, and then you added: "I left no forensics at Fawkner". When you were charged with the Maher murder, you asked Mr Fraser to examine the brief served upon you. He did so and discussed it with you, and in particular the forensic evidence of the glove. Again you said "I left no forensics at Fawkner". You said that Ms Halvagis would not have seen you, because you attacked her from behind. You then, in your cell, performed a macabre silent demonstration of the attack. Some time later you again said to Mr Fraser that you had left no forensics at Fawkner. The remorseless verbal recitation three times in prison of your cunning at Fawkner helped bring you undone.

10 By good police work, Detective Senior Constable Paul Scarlett, then of the Homicide Squad, noted that you and Mr Fraser were together in the Sirius East Unit from January 2002 to March 2003. He approached Mr Fraser later in Mr Fraser's sentence when he was in Fulham Correctional Centre, Sale. Mr Fraser made a statement of the events and conversations between him and you in Sirius East. Ultimately you were charged with the murder of Ms Halvagis and after a month-long trial, in which you remained silent as was your right, you were found guilty by the jury of her murder.

13 First, the Halvagis family. The Court has been deeply impressed by your dignity throughout these painful and emotional proceedings. You are a fine family. Through these ten years you have shown courage, and love and loyalty to Mersina. You have never wavered. The jury's verdict will not bring Mersina back, but I hope it brings to you some sense of justice and of resolution. To you, Mr and Mrs Halvagis senior, and especially to the younger generation - you, Nick, Dimitria and Bill - I encourage you to look to your own creative futures and to embrace those futures. I am sure that is what Mersina would wish.

14 Mr Angelo Georgievski. Your conduct was exactly that of an innocent and loving person. You have suffered the added pain of Mr Dupas' counsel in public court asking did you have any involvement in the death of Ms Halvagis.[1] When you were asked that question the person, other than you, who best knew the answer sat silently in court - the true killer, Mr Dupas. You, Mr Georgievski, had no involvement in Mersina's death whatsoever. You lovingly cared for her and had the horror of finding her body. I hope that in your life you can now move forward with your family.

15 The investigating police, in particular Inspector Gregory Hough, Officer in Charge Senior Sergeant Jeffrey Maher and the Informant, Senior Constable Paul Scarlett. This has been an extensive investigation. You have demonstrated excellent police qualities: intelligent application to the task, initiative, persistence and integrity. I commend you.

16 At the commencement of this trial an application was made on behalf of the accused for a permanent stay of proceedings. The application was premised on two grounds: a suggested incapacity to receive a fair jury trial because of the accused's notoriety, and a suggested lack of utility because the accused was already serving two life sentences with no minimum terms. I refused the application. The jury, by its care and conscientious application to its task, and its intelligent address as demonstrated by its questions during deliberation, undoubtedly gave the accused a fair trial. That fairness is a commendable Australian characteristic and the jury demonstrated it. As to the second ground, utility, the answer is that victims matter. Ms Halvagis matters. Every victim matters. I would like to say something further about Ms Halvagis and other victims of crime. The law has always given, and rightly so, scrupulous attention to proper process to ensure accused persons receive fair trials. That process should never be deflected or diluted or diminished. Further, the criminal law is founded upon the protection of society as a whole. It is a public, not a private, matter. Thus proceedings are brought by the State, not by the victim. Even so, I do not think the law has given sufficient attention to the rights of victims. Because Mr Dupas could not be sentenced to any further term of actual imprisonment beyond that which he already was serving, this trial was a vindication of the rights of Ms Halvagis - the bringing to justice of her killer - and of all victims of crime. I think it would be appropriate for consideration to be given to the provision of the Sentencing Act 1991 which governs the purposes of sentencing, s.5(1), to be amended to state specifically that a purpose for which sentences may be imposed is the vindication of the rights of victims. Likewise with s.5(2), the statement of relevant factors in sentencing. There should be a fairer balance between the rights of offenders and the rights of victims.

17 Finally, I return to you, Mr Dupas. You took from Ms Halvagis the most basic right of all - her right to life. She was a fine young woman aged 25 and you cut her life from her. You left her family and loved ones bereaved. You are now 54 years of age. Before 1 November 1997 you had been convicted three times of violent rapes of women - in 1974, 1980 and 1985 - and sentenced to imprisonment. You have no remorse for the terrible crime of the murder of Ms Halvagis: none. You have no prospect of rehabilitation: none. You do not suffer from any mental illness. Rather, you are a psychopath driven by a hatred of women. For the murder of Mersina Halvagis, I sentence you to life imprisonment. I refuse to set any minimum term. Life means life.

I certify that this and the five preceding pages are a true copy of the reasons for Sentence of Cummins J of the Supreme Court of Victoria delivered on 27 August 2007.

[1] T.339. See Tuckiar v R [1934] HCA 49; (1934) 52 CLR 335 at 346 per Gavan Duffy CJ and Dixon, Evatt and McTiernan JJ.

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