Matt Leveson’s parents slam son’s ‘cold’ ex-lover Michael Atkins
MICHAEL Atkins is a “cold and calculating” killer who got away with strangling or smothering his young lover Matt Leveson, an inquest was told yesterday.
NSW
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- Matt Leveson’s mum breaks down after hearing of son’s death
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MICHAEL Atkins is a “cold and calculating” killer who got away with strangling or smothering his young lover Matt Leveson, an inquest was told yesterday.
Matt Leveson’s father, Mark Leveson, asked the coroner to find that Atkins killed his son, 20, in 2007 and that Atkins lied to the jury that acquitted him of murder in 2009.
The 54-year-old had engaged in an “elaborate subterfuge” — maintaining Matt had walked out on him and was probably still alive — until he admitted earlier this year to burying his young lover and led police to the remains in the Royal National Park south of Sydney, the inquest was told.
Atkins has now claimed he panicked when Matt died of a drug overdose after they returned to their Cronulla flat from Sydney’s Arq nightclub in the early hours of September 23, 2007.
But Mark Leveson said Atkins’ actions were not those of a man whose loved one had gone missing but “cold, calculating, self-interest-focused behaviour”.
“(This is) not consistent with an accidental death,” Mr Leveson said.
Martial arts expert Atkins only admitted to burying Matt after being given immunity from prosecution for any new trial on murder or manslaughter and being threatened with prosecution for perjury at the inquest.
“When all the points ... are taken together, there can be no other conclusions made other than Matt Leveson died at the hand of Michael Atkins, most likely as a result of smothering or strangulation when Atkins gained the upper hand because of his jujitsu skills or because of Matt’s drug affected condition,” Mr Leveson said.
He was making his final submissions to the long-running inquest as deputy state coroner Elaine Truscott has to determine Matt’s cause and manner of death.
The final submissions made by Atkins, who has sold his Brisbane home and gone into hiding since the inquest began, filled just half a page.
His counsel Claire Wasley said he adopted the submissions of counsel assisting the inquest Tim Game SC who said that notwithstanding his years of lies, there was no evidence Atkins killed Matt.
Mr Game said it was open to the coroner to find that Atkins buried Matt.
The post mortem examination of Matt’s remains revealed injuries which were mostly caused after his death but there were a small number which could have been before or after his death.
Outside court Matt’s mother Faye Leveson said the family was hoping for the best but expecting the worst.
“It’s upsetting, I know we’ll probably get an open finding, but as Mark said, we’ve been knocked down that many times I’m not expecting things to go our way,” Ms Leveson said.
“The main thing was that we did find Matt, we got him back. If we get an open finding, we’ll have to just live with that, but we know in our hearts who was responsible for it.”