Umit Bolat: Shepparton fruit picker tortured, killed before body dumped in Murray River

A judge has described the torture and killing of much loved Shepparton father-of-five as ‘totally inexplicable’.

An underworld fruitpicker and drug dealer who led the torture and killing of a much-loved Shepparton father-of-five has been jailed for at least eight and a half years.

Huai De Ooi, 32, faced the Victorian Supreme Court on Friday over the 2018 manslaughter of Umit Bolat, amid a dispute about the ownership of Mr Bolat’s prized silver BMW.

Justice Lex Lasry said Ooi, also known as Arthur, killed Mr Bolat during an inexplicable, hours-long torture session.

Ooi put a plastic bag over Mr Bolat’s head towards the end of the torture session, although his injuries were so significant that an autopsy could not conclude whether he was already dead.

Justice Lasry said the plastic bag was a “final act of degradation on Mr Bolat”, who had been stabbed, beaten over the head, and bound with cable ties.

His body was then dumped in the Murray River near Cobram, while his yellow Holden ute was left in a supermarket carpark.

“The level of violence perpetrated on Mr Bolat ... is repulsive and would shock the public conscience,” Justice Lasry said.

“Whatever issues motivated the offending ... the violence perpetrated against this man is so far out of proportion is a be totally inexplicable.”

Unit Bolat disappeared from Shepparton on August 12

At a sentencing hearing earlier this month, Justice Lasry said Ooi’s offending was so serious there was a “pretty respectable” case he might have been found guilty of the more serious charge of murder.

Justice Lasry said on Friday the prosecution’s original charge of murder was “not without merit”.

He said the level of violence Ooi inflicted on Mr Bolat “adds to my despair” about the heartless violence people can inflict on each other.

Mr Bolat had been staying at Ooi’s house with fellow fruitpickers in the lead-up to his death, and there was an ongoing dispute about whether he owed a drug debt to Ooi.

Another of the men involved in the killing, Perisamy Kannan, fled Australia before Mr Bolat’s body was found, is believed to be in Malaysia, and will likely be charged with murder if Australian authorities can ever track him down.

Unit “Ergun” Bolat with his former wife Melek and his three eldest children Umut (left), Merve (centre) and Ebru (right). Picture: Supplied

Investigators believe Kannan took an even more violent role in Mr Bolat’s killing than Ooi.

The attack began with Mr Bolat being repeatedly struck with a metal pole, threatened with a shotgun, hit with a clothes iron and stabbed in the leg.

The court has heard the fruitpickers at one stage stopped to eat a meal, while Mr Bolat lay bound and bleeding on an air bed to stop his blood making such a mess of the floor.

The men then resumed their attack.

Unit Bolat's ute was found dumped in a supermarket carpark. Picture: Victoria Police

Justice Lasry sentenced Ooi to 11 years and six months jail, with an eight year and six month non-parole period.

Ooi has served nearly three years on remand and will be deported to Malaysia when he is released.