Brendon James Prestage pleads guilty to assisting with Kobie Parfitt’s manslaughter

How the manslaughter of Ballarat mother Kobie Parfitt occurred and was temporarily covered up, as well as the key to finding her body, has been revealed in court.

Ballarat woman Kobie Parfitt. The 43-year-old was last seen in the Ballarat area during April and has not been seen since. Source: Victoria Police

A Wendouree man who helped dump the body of a Ballarat mum in a mine shaft will walk free from prison on Monday.

Brendon James Prestage, 33, took part in the moving of 43-year-old Kobie Parfitt’s body from her home in Hickman St, Ballarat, where she was killed, and disposing of it in a Snake Valley mine shaft.

The Supreme Court heard Prestage was friends with Shannon Jeffrey, who last week pleaded guilty to manslaughter in relation to Ms Parfitt's death.

Jeffrey had been in prison and made several phone calls from custody about being angry towards Ms Parfitt, believing she had sold some of her property, including a child’s motorbike.

Jeffrey also believed Ms Parfitt had given police information which led in her arrest.

When released from prison on April 17, 2020, Jeffrey returned to the Ballarat area.

Kobie Parfitt.

Welfare concerns

During that month, Ms Parfitt expressed concerns for her own welfare - naming Jeffrey specifically - to her former partner and began to make plans to leave the house.

On April 26, Ms Parfitt texted the man at 1.36am, saying there were cars going up and down the street.

“They know I’m alone,” she said.

“I’m f--ked.”

The next day, an associate of Jeffrey drove the convicted criminal to Ms Parfitt’s home, where Ms Parfitt was prsesent.

She entered the house by the rear stairs and moved through the home filling up bags of property and carrying them to the car.

After perhaps half an hour, the man who had driven Jeffrey came inside.

He introduced himself to Ms Parfitt and noticed she looked “petrified”.

Ms Parfitt told him she “knew this day was coming”.

When the man questioned Jeffrey, saying, “Nothing’s going to happen, is it?” Jeffrey did not respond.

Jeffrey accused Ms Parfitt of “talking shit about her” and after some three hours at the house, struck her face.

Ms Parfitt messaged her former partner again afterwards, writing: “You know what, don’t worry.

“Thanks a lot. I know where I stand.”

The man replied: “OK then.”

It was the last contact he would have with Ms Parfitt.

Shannon Lee Jeffrey.

Manslaughter and hiding the body

On the day of Ms Parfitt’s death, one of her neighbours saw several people coming and going from Ms Parfitt’s home.

She noticed Ms Parfitt herself sitting in a vehicle with the window down, trying to communicate by mouthing words to her.

The neighbour approached.

Ms Parfitt appeared terrified.

When offered the neighbour’s phone to call the police, Ms Parfitt declined and said “they will know it was me” and stated “they were going to put her in the boot”.

The neighbour then invited Ms Parfitt into her own house.

When Jeffrey also arrived, the neighbour asked her if Ms Parfitt was going to be hurt.

Jeffrey said she would not be, laughing at the suggestion Ms Parfitt was afraid of her, and eventually leaving the neighbour’s property.

After being told not to call the police, the neighbour gave Ms Parfitt $10 and set her on her way, suggesting she either sort out her differences with those she feared, or walk to the end of the street and call someone.

Ms Parfitt left and got back into the car at her property before being driven to the rear of the house by one of the group attending her home.

Her neighbour would never see her again.

Despite little surrounding information, Jeffrey later told her associates what happened next: after she had moved into Ms Parfitt’s house, she pointed out to someone that “it happened right here”, explaining that she had bashed Ms Parfitt, who had begged on her knees, and choked her with a dog leash.

At some point afterwards, Prestage and Jeffrey came to Ms Parfitt’s door.

Prestage said to another person present that Ms Parffit was gone and waved his hand near his throat.

The pair said they had “strung up” Ms Parfitt in the house to make her death appear to be a suicide.

It was not alleged Prestage had a direct hand in either the killing of Ms Parfitt – or that he was even present for it – or in the attempted cover-up.

At a later point, Jeffrey even returned to the home to remove other people’s fingerprints from Ms Parfitt's body, but said she had difficulty because her victim’s hair was knotted to the rope.

It was Jeffrey’s mind which turned to a nearby mine shaft for the disposal of Ms Parfitt’s body.

In Prestage’s car, Prestage and Jeffrey carried Ms Parfitt’s body wrapped in bedding, black plastic bags, clear sheets of plastic, blue foam, and tape to Snake Valley about 30km away from Ms Parfitt’s home.

They dumped it in a shaft, covering it with bedding, clothing, and dirt.

Ms Parfitt was reported as missing to police in August 2020, more than three months after Jeffrey killed her.

The court heard the “key” to discovering her body was an analysis of Prestage’s phone.

The device showed Prestage had been in the Snake Valley area on April 28 and in the early hours of April 29, 2020.

So on December 14 police began searching a 1.8km stretch of Pittong-Snake Valley Rd.

After multiple days, they found a deep mine shaft about 12m from the track.

An officer observed “mostly buried” blue material inside, and Ms Parfitt's remains were recovered.

An autopsy was performed later that month, but no cause of death could be ascertained because of the extensive decomposition of Ms Parfitt’s body.

The court was told Prestage probably disposed of his car when he learnt he was a suspect in Ms Parfitt’s murder case and also smashed his phone after police called him.

Detectives found Prestage at a Kinglake home.

“Why do you keep chasing me?” Prestage asked after fleeing from officers, running down an embankment, and falling on the ground.

He was arrested.

Charges and a change of plea

Jeffrey and Prestage were initially charged with murder and were set to be tried in July 2023.

But following the presentation of certain evidence, police accepted an offer from Prestage to plead guilty to assisting an offender in relation to a murder, which he did on June 19.

On July 5, the charge against Jeffrey was changed from murder to manslaughter – to which she pleaded guilty.

The discrepancy in the pleas led Judge Michael Croucher to express concern about a possible “miscarriage of justice”.

He said Prestage should be given the opportunity to change his plea to assisting an offender with manslaughter rather than with murder.

He did so on Monday.

Judge Croucher noted Prestage was not aware of any plans to assault or kill Ms Parfitt before her death, was not aggressive himself, acted only under Jeffrey’s directions, and did not participate in spreading false rumours — as others did — that Ms Parfitt had left the state when she was in fact dead.

The court heard Prestage had prior convictions, including at least one involving violence, but that his offending in this case was “unsophisticated” and “naive”: at an earlier hearing, Judge Croucher referred to Prestage’s leaving his phone on while dumping Ms Parfitt’s body as “pretty thick”.

It was said he acted out of a sense of “misguided loyalty”.

Victim statements and sentence

Ms Parfitt’s mother said in a statement read to the court that she had to “relearn how to survive each day”.

“My family and I will find the strength to go on,” she said.

“ … That you will not understand the pain you brought to us is your own sad reality in life.”

Ms Parfitt’s aunty said she was “shattered” and “broken”.

“Being brought to your knees without warning,” she said.

“Dissolving into a puddle of tears.

She said Ms Parfitt “didn’t just die”, but “begged to live” and was “cold-bloodedly taken away”.

“Nothing of Kobie is left,” she said.

“They took it upon themselves to be judge, jury, god, and executioner”.

Prestage was sentenced to two years and three months’ imprisonment, with a non-parole period of 12 months.

Given he has already spent 924 days in custody, he will be immediately released.

Jeffrey is yet to be sentenced.

“I’m terribly sorry for your loss,” Judge Croucher said to Ms Parfitt’s family in the courtroom.

“It must be a horrible thing.”