Babysitter Greg Domaszewicz still denies guilt, but says Jaidyn Leskie would be 18 now had he not left him at home alone
ACCUSED murderer Greg Domaszewicz has admitted his “stupidity” was to blame for the death of Moe toddler Jaidyn Leskie.
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ACCUSED murderer Greg Domaszewicz has admitted his “stupidity” was to blame for the death of Moe toddler Jaidyn Leskie.
But he still denies killing the 14-month-old in 1997.
Speaking about one of Victoria’s most notorious murders for the first time in several years, Mr Domaszewicz told the Herald Sun he considers he is responsible for Jaidyn no longer being alive.
Jaidyn would have turned 18 this month.
“It’s upsetting, still, because ultimately there’s a kid that died because of my stupidity,” Domaszewicz said.
In 1998, Mr Domaszewicz, who had been the boyfriend of Jaidyn’s mother, Bilynda, was acquitted of the murder of Jaidyn.
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He maintains his innocence, saying that, as he told police, he left Jaidyn home to go and pick up Bilynda from a pub, and Jaidyn wasn’t there when they got back.
“Ultimately, it was my fault. I was the one who got in the car and went to pick her up,” Mr Domaszewicz said.
Approached by the Herald Sun at his home last month, he revealed he had fathered a son 10 years ago, but separated from the mother “a few years ago”.
Asked how often he got to see the boy, he said “as often as I like”.
Mr Domaszewicz said being reminded that Jaidyn would have turned 18 on April 30 had brought memories flooding back.
“I wish I had never left him at home that night,” he said.
“How many lives have changed from that one decision not to stay home?
“Jaidyn would have been a man now. He’d be driving and everything else.”
Changes to double jeopardy laws since the acquittal open the possibility he could be charged again.
He told the Herald Sun he doubted that would happen, but he’d have nothing to fear if it did.
“There’s a lot more evidence going away from me than towards me,” he claimed.
He said beating a murder charge again would enable him to sue his accusers.
In 2006, then State Coroner Graham Johnstone found Mr Domaszewicz had contributed to Jaidyn’s death by throwing the toddler’s body into a Moe dam.
Mr Domaszewicz said he believed Jaidyn was alive for months after he disappeared.
If so, he couldn’t be the killer because he was under constant police surveillance from when Jaidyn was reported missing on June 15, 1997.
He said Jaidyn’s body was well preserved when found in a sleeping bag in a Moe dam in January 1998 - showing, he said, that the body hadn’t been submerged for six months.
“He was found, like, a lot bigger than how he went missing,” Mr Domaszewicz said.
“The thing is, how did he grow? If he was in the water in that bag, how come that bag could rot … and yet he was all right?” he said.
He also recently told the Herald Sun that prisoners who claimed he had confessed to them had lied.
He said if he had killed Jaidyn and was going to confess, it would have happened in the years since his acquittal, considering he had discussed the case with people while drinking and using drugs.
“I have never once at any stage even, like, whether you want to call, slipped, or said or mentioned anything,” Mr Domaszewicz said.
“How come since then, like, not one person has said, ‘Oh, did you know that one day, this and that’?
“How come that has not happened in, like, 15 years?”
Mr Domaszewicz was unwilling to discuss with the Herald Sun his strong underworld connections.
He was one of the last to speak to hitman Andrew “Benji” Veniamin before Mick Gatto shot the killer dead, and was a friend of late murderer and drug dealer Carl Williams.
Detectives from the Purana gangland killing taskforce discovered Mr Domaszewicz spoke to Veniamin just two hours before Gatto shot Veniamin dead in Carlton’s La Porcella restaurant on March 23, 2004. Gatto was charged with murdering Veniamin but was acquitted after arguing the shooting was in self-defence.
Detectives made the link from the telephone records of Veniamin, and found that Mr Domaszewicz had a longstanding relationship with him and with Carl Williams and Williams’s wife, Roberta.
Mr Domaszewicz hung up on the Herald Sun in 2004 when asked about the call to Veniamin. But Mr Domaszewicz’s lawyer, Michael Rafter, confirmed his client knew Veniamin and the Williams.
He said Mr Domaszewicz spoke to Veniamin about 1pm the day Veniamin was shot.
“It was Roberta Williams’s birthday that day, and they were talking about going out for her birthday that night,” Mr Rafter said.
“Police were quite rightly interested in what Benji’s demeanour was, and what he said to Greg.
“Greg says it was just a normal everyday conversation, talking about going out that night. Nothing was mentioned about Gatto or anything like that,” Mr Rafter said.
Mr Rafter said Carl and Roberta Williams had introduced Mr Domaszewicz to Veniamin.
He said: “Benji was very kind to Greg. He used to look after him as far as money and food and so on was concerned.
“Greg appreciated what Benji did for him, and was shattered by his death.”
Mr Domaszewicz was able to slip past waiting media to attend Veniamin’s funeral.
The relationship with the Williams couple was strong enough for them to invite him to their daughter Dhakota’s christening at Crown casino’s plush Palladium Room.
Mr Rafter confirmed that Mr Domaszewicz had been one of the guests who attended the lavish celebration in December 2003.
keith.moor@news.com.au
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