Accused killer Zoran Pandilovski pleads guilty to murder of wife Elaine
Zoran Pandilovski told a jury last week he didn’t murder his estranged wife, but things took a surprise turn in court this morning.
Police & Courts
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Wife killer Zoran Pandilovski has pleaded guilty to the choking murder of his childhood sweetheart, Elaine, before hiding her body in the basement of their family home.
Pandilovski entered a plea of guilty to one count of murder on Monday morning over the death of the dedicated mum and teachers aide, who he was married to for 16 years.
The plea comes after the 47-year old had attempted to plead to the lesser charge of manslaughter on Thursday — a plea that was rejected by the prosecution who wanted him to go down for murder.
A three-week trial was set to begin on Monday in front of a new jury, after the first jury was on Friday dismissed due to an issue in the empanelment process.
But the trial will now be aborted after Pandilovski admitted he murdered his estranged wife.
Ms Pandilovski’s body was discovered by police in a storage room off the basement of the Mill Park home she shared with her young son Thomas on July 14, 2020.
Her former husband had gone to the property — which he moved out of two years earlier when the pair separated — to pick up their son’s computer for repair, at about 7.45am.
The Supreme Court heard it was here that Pandilovski was accused of choking his ex-partner to death then concealing her body in the house, before driving away at “high speed” and getting into a car crash.
Colleagues who worked with the young mum at Plenty Parkland Primary alerted Ms Pandilovski’s mother that she never arrived at school that day, leading to an unsuccessful search of her Mill Park home.
The body of the 44-year-old was later found by police, with an autopsy revealing she died of “compression of the neck”.
The Herald Sun can now reveal that Pandilovski had repeatedly flip-flopped on his plea.
On Thursday morning, the court was made aware that he intended to plead guilty to murder, but then changed his mind in the afternoon, entering his formal plea to the jury as being “not guilty to murder, but guilty to manslaughter”.
His concession was the first time the Epping man had admitted to killing Ms Pandilovski.
On Monday, before a new jury, he was forced to enter his plea again.
It came after the first jury was discharged on Friday over troubles with the empanelment process.
Prosecutors had raised concerns with Justice Christopher Beale’s decision to excuse a retired policeman from service, as he walked to take his seat in the jury box.
His Honour told the court he made the call to excuse the potential juror over perceptions of apprehended bias.
He then discharged the first jury “as a matter of prudence” amid concerns that if Pandilovski was found guilty, it could be appealed on the basis that the jury was invalidly constituted.
As Pandilovski re-entered his plea on Monday, he changed his mind again and told the Supreme Court he was guilty of murder.
He will return to court for a plea hearing on June 23.
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