Man accused of 2005 murder of Martin Meffert ‘showed human skull to friend’
THE man accused of the 2005 murder of Martin Meffert pulled a human skull out of a box in a “show and tell” to a friend before partial remains were found by police in a fireplace some years later, a court has heard.
THE man accused of the 2005 murder of Martin Meffert pulled a human skull out of a box in a “show and tell” to a friend before partial remains were found by police in a fireplace some years later, a court has heard.
The Port Augusta Magistrates Court was on Tuesday told the accused did not dispute draining the 23-year-old murder victim’s bank account of more than $136,000 between 2005 and 2013.
“In 2015, he was served with a debt notice from the Commonwealth for the stolen money,” the prosecutor told Magistrate Rodney Oates.
“The debt was not disputed by the accused and he is currently paying the debt back fortnightly from his own pension.”
The prosecutor also said that after Mr Meffert’s disappearance, the accused – who cannot be named because he was 16 at the time of the alleged murder – had “bragged” to a friend about having two Centrelink accounts.
The court was also told that police had recently seized a caravan, which is suspected of being the location of the alleged murder.
Mr Oates refused the man all forms of bail, including home detention.
He said the offence was too serious and the court wanted to ensure the ongoing investigation was not impeded and the integrity of potential witnesses was upheld.
Opposing bail, prosecutors said up to 40 per cent of Mr Meffert’s remains were found by police in a bag in the fireplace of a Terowie home on October 24, 2013.
The prosecutor said Mr Meffert was last seen alive on February 8, 2005.
“Since that time, that is some time in 2005, the accused was accessing Mr Meffert’s bank account and withdrawing his pension payments,” the prosecutor said.
“The final withdrawal of money from his account occurred on October 21, 2013, which was just three days prior to police attending his home and finding the remains.
“In total, the accused withdrew $136, 483 from Mr Meffert’s account between 2005 and October 21, 2013.”
The prosecutor said the last sighting of Mr Meffert was from a social worker at the Glenside Hospital who escorted him to a bus stop so he could travel back to Terowie after treatment for an eating disorder.
It was not long after his return to Terowie that prosecutors will allege Mr Meffert was murdered because all contact between him and Centrelink stopped, eventually leading to his pension being cut off in October 2005, she said.
The prosecutor told the court the accused then allegedly pretended to be Mr Meffert and provided Centrelink with medical assessment forms and other documents to ensure the payments were reinstated.
“The evidence in relation to the fraud is overwhelming,” the prosecutor said.
“There are documents that were provided to Centrelink, documents purported to be prepared by Mr Meffert, in the accused’s handwriting.
“Fingerprints belonging to the accused were found on some of those documents. Post office boxes that were set up in Mr Meffert’s name had fingerprints on their application matching the accused.
“And witnesses state that they saw him using Mr Meffert’s bank card and bragging about having two Centrelink accounts.”
“The remains were subject to forensic analysis and of significance, the findings of the forensic scientist was that 30 to 40 per cent of the skeleton of Mr Meffert was located.
“This included bones from the head, neck, upper torso and upper arms. There was evidence to suggest the remains had been buried and there was extensive blunt force skull fractures, in particular nine visible fractures. More than one impact was sustained.”
The prosecutor said there was also part of the skull missing and investigators could not confirm that there was “an injury caused by some sort of penetrating object” – or a possible bullet wound.
“Mr Meffert did not suffer an accident of some sort, he was the victim of some sort of violent assault,” the prosecutor said.
“We can’t say how he died, we don’t know the cause of death. Over the years and leading up to the discovery of the bones, a number of witnesses saw human remains, including a skull, at various homes.
“In fact, one witness states that the accused took out a box and showed him, something like a show and tell, look what I’ve got, and it was a human skull. That occurred some years before the bones were discovered by police in 2013.”
The prosecutor said another witness states that the accused told him “something had happened in a caravan” and “after it happened, he cleaned the caravan out with metho and sold it”.
John Voumard, for the accused, told the court his client was entitled to the presumption of innocence and the case was “circumstantial”.
“There’s no allegations he’s intimidated witnesses,” he said.
“In my submission, the bail address that has been provided is entirely appropriate. This will no doubt be a long and protracted matter. He has not been charged with the Commonwealth fraud.”
But Mr Oates asked why the accused had not been charged over the theft of the pension payments.
The prosecutor said it was at the Commonwealth’s discretion and it elected to serve a debt notice and order repayment of the stolen money.
“That seems to be satisfactory to the Commonwealth,” the prosecutor said. The case will be back before the court in February next year.