Aneta Pochopien: Affair with workmate led to revenge murder

ANETA Pochopien died in the arms of her husband in the driveway of their Chadstone home as her young son watched on. She paid the ultimate price for a workplace affair gone wrong.

Aneta Pochopien died in the arms of her husband Peter.

TEARS ran down Martin Pochopien’s cheeks as a horde of reporters watched and camera flashes flooded the room with light.

Two days earlier, on April 14, 2004, he had watched his mother Aneta die in his father Peter’s arms in the driveway of their Chadstone home, and her killer was still on the run.

Now Martin, just 10, bravely faced a media conference at Oakleigh police station with his father, asking his mum’s killer to surrender.

“Just come forward. Say sorry and tell my family why you did this,” Martin sobbed.

“It’s ruined my life. She was very nice and caring and she loved me very much. She always had a smile on her face.”

Aneta Pochopien. 32, was shot in the head and chest through the window of her car about 5.30am outside her Carramar Street, Chadstone home.

She had just arrived after working the nightshift at the Silcraft car components factory in Glen Waverley.

Peter and Martin were woken by the shots and rushed to her but she died soon after.

Peter in the backyard of his home shortly after Aneta was shot dead. Picture: Ellen Smith.

A light-coloured Mitsubishi Lancer raced from the scene.

“We just built our dream home,” Peter told the media conference.

“We have been working for years to get that and she died in front of that house, in my arms. We were happy there, so happy that we had done it.”

The pair had known each other since they were teenagers, married in 1992 and left Poland soon after Martin was born to make a new life in Australia.

Peter said she was “the best person I’ve ever known”.

As Peter and Martin spoke, homicide squad Detective Senior Sergeant Jeff Maher already knew the dark secret that led to Aneta’s murder.

He also knew his prime suspect was under police observation and was unravelling under the strain, presenting at a medical clinic in Burwood.

Maher gave away plenty of clues the investigation was well advanced.

He said detectives knew what weapon and ammunition was used to kill Aneta, and that they had narrowed the list of suspects substantially.

Peter and Martin Pochopien and Peter's mum, Christina Manuzewski, at Aneta’s funeral.

“I would say the deceased knew her attacker and from what we can glean at the scene the deceased saw her attacker before she was shot,” he said.

“We are following a substantial line of inquiry and we’ve spoken to a number of people who are of very great interest to us.”

Maher said Aneta’s relationships with co-workers were under scrutiny.

After the conference, with cameras and microphones switched off, Maher sought to up the pressure on his suspect.

More: Killer appeals mum murder verdict

Giving the media everything but a nudge and a wink, he sent them to the clinic.

As they tore off for Burwood the suspect, Pisey Prasoeur, was heading to Box Hill Hospital in an ambulance.

It was later reported Prasoeur had attempted suicide, cutting his elbow and wrist with a blunt Stanley knife.

That night, he was arrested and charged with Aneta’s murder.

Prasoeur, 22, a security guard at Silcraft, was remanded in custody.

He pleaded not guilty to the murder at his trial in September 2005.

Aneta and Peter. She had confessed the affair and the couple had reconciled.

Prasoeur had become obsessed with Aneta after their affair.

The jury was told that Aneta and Prasoeur had a sexual relationship between May and October 2003, Prasoeur showering his lover with more than 1300 text messages in the year before her death.

Aneta became pregnant but aborted the baby in September. In a terrible co- incidence, she informed Prasoeur of the abortion via text message on his birthday.

Aneta had confessed the affair to Peter and the couple reconciled.

“The motive was revenge for the abortion of what he believed to be his unborn child on his birthday, and the manner he believed he was treated by the deceased following that abortion,” prosecutor Doug Trapnell told the jury.

“He was obsessed with this woman, and the breakdown in their relationship tore him apart. If he couldn’t have her, then nobody else would.”

In a notebook discovered by police, Prasoeur wrote of Aneta: “I loved you, and I still do. I’m jealous knowing that you can have sex with him every day, even though he’s your husband, because I do love you and I always will”.

Prasoeur used his computer to research terms related to police procedure, crime scene investigation and murder, but he said these related to a course he was taking to become a policeman.

The murder scene at Carramar St, Chadstone.

Forensic police mark out points of interest on the nature strip outside the Pochopien home.

The court heard Prasoeur had left the factory, where he was the only guard on duty, laid in wait for Aneta, shot her with a sawn-off rifle and returned to work.

The murder weapon was found in a drain at the factory.

Prasoeur denied any involvement, instead saying another Silcar worker, Rohan Munasinghe, confessed the murder to him.

Mr Munasinghe told the court he was not the killer but admitted a sexual relationship with Aneta.

Another worker, Edwin Cabrera, gave evidence that he saw Prasoeur at the factory around the time of the murder.

It took a little over four hours for the jury to find Prasoeur guilty.

In February 2006, Justice Kevin Bell sentenced him to 20 years in jail with a minimum of 15 years.

A courtroom sketch of Prasoeur.

Justice Bell said Prasoeur was devastated by the breakup and the abortion and was severely depressed at the time of the murder, but said it was no excuse.

“Anger, hurt or disappointment over the termination of a relationship, or a person’s conduct in a relationship, does not justify violence of any sort, let alone murder,” he said.

Aneta Pochopien was laid to rest in her home town, Krakow.

Peter and Martin Pochopien endured the trial but returned to Poland before Prasoeur was sentenced.

In a bizarre twist, Prasoeur waited until 2014 — more than half way through his sentence — to seek leave to appeal his conviction.

A panel of three Supreme Court judges dismissed the application.

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