Bat murder man loses appeal

By Rebecca Fraser
A MAN found guilty of killing a Eumemmerring woman with a cricket bat more than 10 years ago has lost an appeal against his conviction.
In April 2002 former Dandenong North resident Bohdan Weiss was found guilty of the 1994 murder of 27-year-old Helen Grey.
Weiss was sentenced in the Victorian Supreme Court to 20 years jail with a non-parole period of 16 years.
Ms Grey died after receiving at least three blows to the head as she lay on the couch of her Gumbuya Close home.
Her young son’s cricket bat was used to inflict the injuries.
Police charged Weiss with Ms Grey’s murder six years after her death, after his former de facto partner contacted police from the United States and said she had provided him with a false alibi.
The ex-partner also told police that Weiss had confessed to the killing after returning from Ms Grey’s home on the night of 24 November.
According to Court of Appeal documents, Weiss became angry with Ms Grey when a mutual friend of the pair suggested Weiss had been spreading gossip about sexual activities involving their group of acquaintances.
After attending soccer practice on the evening of November 24, Weiss then left the home he shared with his then de facto partner and went to see Ms Grey about the matter.
Court documents revealed that when Weiss returned home about an hour later his partner noted that he was shaking and very pale and said words to the effect that “I did it. I killed her. I knocked her off. I killed Helen.”
During the murder trial the court heard that Weiss had formed a relationship with a 14-year-old girl after the death of Ms Grey.
He later appealed against the Supreme Court decision in the Victorian Court of Appeal and argued that the girl’s age should not have been disclosed during the trial.
The Court of Appeal subsequently found that the girl’s age should not have been given as it did not relate to the case. But the court dismissed the appeal on grounds that the jury would still have found Weiss guilty, regardless of whether this detail was presented in court or not.
Weiss then took his case to the High Court last year, which ordered the case be taken back to the Victorian Court of Appeal.
However, the Victorian Court of Appeal ruled early last month it was satisfied there had been no miscarriage of justice and Weiss’s guilt could be proven beyond reasonable doubt.