Timothy Murphy: ‘I see dead people’ burglar ‘saw’ body in toilet
A Frankston “fried brain” burglar shot up ice and ‘saw’ a dead body. But the cops got involved and all he’s seeing now are jail cell walls.
South East
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In a scene reminiscent of the movie The Sixth Sensea court has heard an ice-addled “fried brain” burglar was caught by cops after he thought he saw a dead body lying in a toilet.
Timothy Michael Murphy had just “shot up” when he ran down a Frankston street shouting that he had found a deceased person and someone should called police.
But everyone ignored him, so he went to his mum’s house and she phone 000.
The cops arrested the Frankston 44-year-old over outstanding burglary and theft-related charges.
There never was a body as it was a vision he had concocted due to his drug-induced psychotic state.
It wasn’t his first encounter with the dead, real or not.
He once he woke up next to a friend who had overdosed and on another occasion discovered a neighbour’s corpse lying in a house.
Murphy pleaded guilty to a series of theft, burglary, deceptions and bail breach charges at the online Frankston Magistrates’ Court on Friday.
The court heard at around 8am on November 12 last year police received reports of a dead body being found in a Frankston toilet.
When they attended Murphy’s mum’s house they found him with blood on his arm ranting and raving about what he had “seen”.
When he took them to the supposed location of the corpse at a nearby public toilet, there was no body there.
He told officers he had “just done a shot (of ice)” and swore that he had seen a dead person.
At the time he was wanted for burglarising Frankston community legal and hearing support businesses, stealing phones, bank cards and cash.
He would then use the stolen cards to buy booze.
His defence lawyer said the unemployed builder’s labourer was suffering a psychotic episode at the time and was having flashbacks of when he had come across other dead people.
He said his client had spent long periods in jail for burglary and drug offending, but was now determined to “make some changes” and turn his life around from years of substance abuse.
Murphy told the magistrate he had “had enough” of the drug-fuelled criminal lifestyle.
Magistrate Gerard Lethbridge said if “someone was a gambler, they wouldn’t place a bet on you” becoming rehabilitated.
“Spending time in jail is a profound waste of your life,” Mr Lethbridge said.
“Particularly if you have fried your brain through methamphetamine use.
“Your future isn’t the brightest at all.”
He sent Murphy for a community corrections order assessment, warning him he “wouldn’t be walking out the (jail) door any time soon”.
He was remanded in custody to be sentenced on February 26.
