Jumper could seal fate of horror home invasion accused

Advanced DNA technology led police to an Endeavour Hills grandmother’s would-be killer, a court has heard, after the woman was left to die in a pool of her own blood during a terrifying home invasion.

The accused will face a directions hearing in the Supreme Court in January.

DNA found on the jumper of a grandmother brutally stabbed in her home lead police to her would-be killer five years on, a court has heard.

Advanced technologies in analysing DNA allowed Ilona Prohaska’s bloodied garment — stored by investigators in a sealed evidence bag since 2013 — to be tested by forensics last year.

Police forensics officer Catherine Bradley told Melbourne Magistrates Court the DNA returned a match “100 billion times more likely” to be the 41-year-old man charged with Ms Prohaska’s attempted murder.

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Ms Bradley’s evidence was among the last to be heard today before the man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was committed to stand trial in the Supreme Court.

He is accused of stabbing Ms Prohaska and leaving her in a pool of blood to die in a terrifying home invasion in Endeavour Hills about 3pm on May 21, 2013.

When Magistrate Lance Martin asked how he pleaded to the six charges, including attempted murder, intentionally cause serious injury and make threats to kill, the man stood in the dock and replied: “Not guilty to all charges.”

Defence barrister Paul Smallwood told the court that identification was the main issue in the case.

Mr Smallwood had earlier pointed out Ms Prohaska had told police the man who attacked her had dark hands like an “Indian” when his client was caucasian.

The court also heard Ms Prohaska, when shown a photo of the accused — taken in March 2012 — claimed she had never seen the man before and that he was not her attacker.

Detective Senior Constable Robert Ormerod told the court another man, an associate of Ms Prohaska’s late son, was initially questioned but released over the attack.

It wasn’t until last year that they made links to the man now charged.

Earlier, Ms Prohaska told the court how she was barged over by the man when answering the door, thinking it was a representative from her insurance company she was expecting.

She described being knocked to the ground, and the man kneeling over the top of her and putting the knife to her throat.

“I was frozen and I couldn’t move,” she said.

He later pulled a hammer out of his jacket, she said, before using it to bang the knife into her throat.

The accused will face a directions hearing in the Supreme Court on January 22.