Geelong’s biggest court cases for 2023 revealed
Messy love triangles resulting in murder, a drug deal gone horribly wrong, an ex-AFL player in court for filming family members naked. These are Geelong’s biggest court stories for 2023.
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A messy love triangle resulting in murder, an ex-AFL player filming family members naked and an assault by notorious party boy Corey Worthington are just some of the biggest court cases Geelong has seen in the past 12 months.
Ashley Roy Feetham was sentenced to jail in the Supreme Court for 22 years for fatally stabbing Dylan Bond, as a result of a love triangle
Feetham, who had argued self-defence throughout the trial, was found guilty by a jury during a near three week long trial for murdering Dylan, and seriously injuring his brother Heath.
That’s not the only major case that has transpired this year.
Darren John Chalmers murdered Geelong mum Annette Steward in 1992, and details of the murder were heard for the first time in November.
The court heard Chalmers had visited Ms Steward, 29, with a friend.
Hours later he turned up on her doorstep with a “Darwin stubby”, saying he had “no one to celebrate his birthday with” and asking to come in.
Ms Steward agreed, and they drank a bit before she said he could spend the night on her couch.
An hour later, he rose and murdered Ms Steward by bashing her head three times with an iron before strangling her with a cord.
Joshua Rozynski was jailed for a minimum of 17 years for murdering Daniel Eagle with a shotgun.
Rozynski, was sentenced for killing Mr Eagle, 44, in the early hours of March 27, 2021 amid an escalating feud over a $1000 drug deal.
The court heard Rozynski got into a car and chased Eagle, who was in a Ford Territory with two others, around the streets of Corio.
Eagle’s car came to stop when he smashed into a postal van on the Princes Hwy about 6am.
Rozynski then got out of his vehicle, walked up to Eagle’s car, leaned into the vehicle and shot Eagle, who was in the passenger seat, in the back with a sawn-off shot gun.
David Ball, a forensic psychologist in Geelong, prepares psychological reports of criminals throughout Australia and said murderers who intended to plead guilty would show remorse, while murderers who were found guilty in a trial were less likely to feel remorse.
“Once you put a matter to trial, irrespective of the nature of the matter, you’ve blown your remorse,” Mr Ball said.
“You cannot then go back and say ‘I got found guilty, I’m really sorry about it’.
“If you are going to put something to trial, then you need to be very sure about what your chances are of winning a case, because once you have lost the case, you lose your remorse.
“You have had victims cross-examined, you’ve had the time taken out of the court’s calendar and you’ve had all the costs associated with that,” he said.
SEE SOME OF THE BIGGEST CASES
Darren John Chalmers
Chalmers, a double killer, begged a court to never release him from jail, as the details on how he murdered a Geelong mum was finally revealed after 21 years.
Chalmers appeared before the Supreme Court for a pre-sentence hearing after pleading guilty to the cold-case murder of Annette Steward in 1992.
Outlining the case in court, Victorian Director of Public Prosecutions, Kerri Judd KC, said Ms Steward, 29, was found naked and strangled to death in her home on March 18, 1992.
Ashley Feetham
Feetham was found guilty by a jury of murdering Dylan Bond and seriously injuring his brother Heath Bond in a Thomson home on April 26, 2021.
Feetham was jailed for 22 years for fatally stabbing Dylan as a result of a love triangle.
More than two dozen of the victim’s family and friends rose to their feet and applauded in the courtroom when the verdict was delivered in November, this year.
Joshua Rozynski
A Geelong dad and convicted drug dealer was murdered when he was shot at close range with a sawn-off shotgun after a bungled drug deal.
Rozynski fatally shot Daniel Eagle in a chaotic shootout spanning Norlane and Corio on March 27, 2021.
The court heard Rozynski got into a car and chased Eagle, who was in a Ford Territory with two others, around the streets of Corio after the pair had a fight over a $1000 drug deal.
Adam Brown
Brown, a former Deakin University lecturer who admitted to killing his wife, claimed an argument about kindergarten arrangements led to her fatal stabbing.
Wearing a black suit and supported by more than a dozen family and friends sitting in court, the senior communications academic silently sobbed and looked down as details of his wife’s murder were aired.
After his arrest, Brown told police he was arguing with Ms Cheng over kindergarten arrangements for their three-year-old son which led to insults being hurled at one another inside their Patrick Ave home.
Tyson Armstrong
Armstrong was sentenced to a decade behind bars with a minimum of eight years for the “cowardly, alcohol fuelled and entirely senseless” attack in the Crown Casino food court in March, 2022.
The Geelong father-of-three followed his victim after the two spoke for five seconds in the game room, then pushed and punched him from behind as he walked away.
Describing his actions as those of a “violent and drunken thug”, Justice Andrew Tinney said Armstrong had “launched a violent, cowardly and unforgivable attack” on an innocent man enjoying a night out with his girlfriend, Tessa Penberthy.
Shafiul Milky
Milky was found guilty by jury of 15 charges of indecent assault, sexual assault and rape of his patients while he worked at the Ocean Grove Peninsula Family Medical Practice and with the National Home Doctor Service between September 2012 and February 2019.
Judge Felicity Hampel said the victims spoke of the fear and distress of potentially seeing him in their local area and felt shame and humiliation for not doing enough to complain about his actions.
The court was told he would add commentary to inappropriate examinations by saying “nice” and had visible signs of an erection when he committed sexual offences.
George Humphreys
Humphreys tortured a woman so badly during a horror camping trip that she had nothing left, a court her.
He was jailed for 14 years his “callous” crimes including drugging, tying up and raping the woman during the camping trip.
The Geelong County Court heard the night-long ordeal happened just days before Humphreys was going to hand himself into police for stealing a car and pushing it into the ocean.
The horrendous acts happened at Coopers Bridge – a free campsite in the Moreep bushland reserve – in early 2020.
Luke Joseph Martin
Martin, a former teacher at Geelong High School, sexually abused a student on multiple occasions, including in his own bed when his wife was away and their children were at home.
He also exchanged more than 40,000 messages with the girl, most of them of a sexual nature.
The court was told 5408 of the messages were sexually explicit videos and voice recordings. Afraid that his wife would catch on, Martin asked the victim to create a cloud account on OneDrive.
Kevin Roache
Roache, a former partner at a prominent Geelong law firm, was jailed for at least a year after he admitted to stealing $400,000 from dead clients’ estates.
He pleaded guilty to taking money from the trusts of two deceased estates during his time at Coulter Roache – now Coulter Legal – and creating a paper trail to cover his tracks.
The court heard Roache, who has since been diagnosed with dementia, funnelled the money through the bank accounts of a now-defunct travel company he once directed.
Jordan Jones
The former AFL player and Ocean Grove coach was convicted for spying on and recording his own family members in the nude.
The Ocean Grove man who played with the West Coast Eagles between 2008-2011 pleaded guilty in Geelong Magistrates Court to three counts of using an optical surveillance device.
Police prosecutor Chris Sinfield told the court Jones unlawfully recorded his mother-in-law, and his sister-in-law, when they went to use a solarium at their family home.
Corey Worthington
Australia’s original viral party boy, Corey Worthington, punched a man confined to a mobility scooter in the face in a Norlane assault.
The court heard Worthington went to a Norlane home on January 23 this year to speak to someone about an incident involving his girlfriend.
Worthington knocked on the door, and when someone answered, he pushed past them causing the door to hit the person on the wrist.
Joshua Wakefield
CCTV captured the terrifying moment a man pointed a gun and shot twice into a North Shore home while his ex and her male friend were inside.
The shots were fired during a scene of utter chaos, with punches thrown, vehicles and property damaged, and a bikini-clad woman dashing to safety.
Moments before Wakefield pulled the trigger, an 11-year-old girl was whisked away from his path of fury, the footage of the incident on January 20, 2022 shows.
satria.dyer-darmawan@news.com.au
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