Victoria’s biggest court cases of 2023
From long-awaited trials to landmark rulings to a crying pop star, these were the most high profile court cases of 2023.
Police & Courts
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From pedophile principal Malka Leifer finally being brought to justice to pop star Vanessa Amorosi crying in the witness box, Victoria’s courts saw it all in 2023.
The Supreme Court and the County Court powered through trial after trial in a bid to catch up on the Covid-19 backlog.
Meanwhile, across the road at the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court, well-known identities like Julia Gillard’s ex-partner Tim Mathieson and John Setka’s ex-wife Emma Walters were in the hot seat.
Here are the biggest court cases of 2023.
Malka Leifer jailed after 15-year fight for justice
Fifteen years after their abuser fled the country, sisters Elly Sapper, Dassi Erlich and Nicole Meyer finally got their justice.
Former principal Malka Leifer, 56, was in August sentenced to 15 years’ jail, with a non-parole period of 11½ years, for sexually abusing Ms Sapper and Ms Erlich while they were pupils at the ultra-Orthodox Adass Israel School.
She was cleared of all charges relating to Ms Meyer.
Ms Erlich said the sentence meant they could finally move on.
“This has been one of the most traumatising, destabilising and awful, painful paths to justice,” she said.
“But today really marks the end of this chapter of our lives and opens the chapter to us healing.”
Judge Mark Gamble said Leifer took “callous advantage” of Ms Sapper and Ms Erlich and abused them for her own perverse sexual gratification.
After a six-week trial, Leifer was in April found guilty by a County Court jury of 18 charges of assaulting and raping Ms Sapper and Ms Erlich between 2004 and 2007.
When sexual abuse allegations first emerged in 2008, Leifer boarded a flight in the middle of the night, allegedly with the help of senior school officials, and fled for Israel.
The move meant she evaded Australian courts for more than a decade.
She was charged in 2014 but mounted a years-long battle against extradition.
With time already served, Leifer will be eligible for parole in 2029.
As an Israeli citizen, she will likely be deported after her release.
Vanessa Amorosi cries in court
Australian pop star Vanessa Amorosi took centre stage at the Supreme Court, fighting back tears in the witness box as she faced off with her estranged mother in a bitter legal stoush.
The Melbourne-born singer-songwriter, 42, is suing her mother Joyleen Robinson over the ownership of two properties held in separate family trusts, claiming they were bought with her income and royalties.
Ms Amorosi described in October how a “war” erupted in her family after she questioned her mother about alleged missing funds.
The singer, who rose to stardom with the single Absolutely Everybody, said her mother took control of her finances by establishing various trusts as her career took off in the early 2000s.
She also spoke of how from a young age, she was taught not to trust anyone else with her finances.
“As time progressed, and I made more money, and I became more successful, everybody became the enemy,” Ms Amorosi said as she broke into tears.
“She was to be the only one there with the right intentions and I believed her.”
In 2001, Ms Amorosi and her mother jointly purchased a semi-rural property on Boundary Road in Narre Warren for $650,000.
This property and another property in the US, where Ms Amorosi lives, are at the centre of the legal battle, with the singer seeking control of both assets or a court order for the Narre Warren property to be sold.
Justice Steven Moore will hand down his judgment next year.
Tim Mathieson goes from ‘First Bloke’ to ‘Worst Bloke’
The ex-partner of former prime minister Julia Gillard admitted he sexually assaulted a female friend by sucking on her nipple while she was sleeping.
Tim Mathieson, the hairdresser who became Australia’s “First Bloke”, was in October convicted and fined $7000 after pleading guilty to sexual assault.
The Melbourne Magistrates’ Court heard the 67-year-old struck up a friendship with the woman, in her 40s, after they met walking their dogs in 2020 during lockdown.
In March 2022, she invited him over for a roast dinner where they enjoyed three bottles of wine between them.
They then sat on the couch to watch the Whitney Houston documentary, but she fell asleep during the film.
She was horrified to wake to find Mathieson “sucking” her nipple, having pulled down her singlet top.
She pushed him away and said “don’t do that”, before she demanded he leave.
Magistrate Belinda Franjic described the sexual assault as “egregious”.
In an emotional victim impact statement, the woman said she had considered Mathieson her friend, before the assault made her question her reality.
“I felt guilt and shame for having a friendship with this person,” she said.
The incident occurred a fortnight before Ms Gillard publicly confirmed they had ended their 15-year relationship back in 2021.
Ricardo Barbaro stands trial three times
The boyfriend of exotic dancer Ellie Price was finally found guilty of her murder – but a brothel owner came close to upending the third and final murder trial.
Ricardo Barbaro, 36, stabbed Ms Price, 26, and slit her throat days before she was found in the blood-soaked bedroom of her South Melbourne apartment on May 4, 2020.
After a four-week trial, Barbaro was in September found guilty of murder by a Supreme Court jury.
The first trial was aborted after a juror did their own research, while the second trial was thrown out so Barbaro’s defence team could review fresh material seized from brothel owner Mark Gray’s mobile phone.
The third trial was largely centred on Mr Gray who was framed as an alternative suspect by Barbaro’s defence barrister Rishi Nathwani.
The court was told Mr Gray and Ms Price had met in 2017 at The Men’s Gallery, before he began to financially support her, pay her rent and buy her expensive items.
Mr Nathwani argued Mr Gray was “obsessed” with Ms Price and became frustrated at their one-sided relationship.
He said the “final straw” came on April 21, 2020, when Ms Price threatened to make a false police report claiming he raped her unless he forked over $100,000.
He argued the jury could not exclude the possibility Mr Gray had used “underworld connections” to have Ms Price murdered, but the jury was not convinced.
Barbaro will be sentenced in the coming months and will join a long list of men who were this year jailed for killing their current or former partners.
They include:
- Zoran Pandilovski who strangled his wife and childhood sweetheart Elaine to death before hiding her body in the basement where he took two photos of her on her phone;
- Joon Seong Tan who dumped the body of his girlfriend Ju “Kelly” Zhang in a wheelie bin but only admitted to murdering her after he was found guilty at trial;
- Former Deakin University lecturer Adam Brown who stabbed his wife Chen Cheng to death during an argument about kindergarten arrangements;
- Paul Charlton who murdered his partner and TV singer Joanne Howell and then applied for victims of crime compensation as the case went cold;
- Benjamin Coman who stabbed his pregnant partner Michelle Darragh to death as she packed her belongings to leave him; and
- Paul McDonough who viciously beat his partner Bekkie-Rae Curren-Trinca to death hours after he was released from custody.
Emma Walters’ threat to kill played in court
The estranged wife of construction union boss John Setka was found guilty of threatening to kill her husband after an explosive secret tape was handed over to police.
Emma Walters, 47, told a private investigator she needed a gun and wanted to “lure” the Victorian secretary of the CFMEU to her home so she could kill him, claiming she feared being assaulted and raped by him.
The former lawyer later told police she was using “florid language” and needed to protect herself and her children from Mr Setka.
But Magistrate Leon Fluxman in December rejected the claim, finding Walters guilty of threatening to kill him.
“She was a trained lawyer who would’ve well understood the importance of words,” he said.
He fined her $1500 without conviction.
Private investigator Adrian Peeters secretly recorded the conversation with Walters at her West Footscray home on March 21.
“I’m going to have to lure him in here and I’m going to have to use it,” Walters says in the video, which was played in court.
“I know how to use a gun alright, I just need a gun and I’m willing to deal with the consequences of having to going through the court process of self-defence, I have that capacity.
“I have to kill my children’s father to survive and that is not a very good position to be in.”
After her arrest, Walters denied she wanted to kill her husband, telling investigators the allegations were “lies”.
“Have I got any intent to kill John Setka? No,” she said in her police interview.
“But do I have responsibility to protect myself and the children? Yes.”
13-year-old stands trial for murder
A 13-year-old who took part in the “vicious” killing of a Reservoir teen was found not guilty of murder because he was too young to know his actions were “seriously wrong”.
The boy was one of the youngest Victorians to ever stand trial for murder after he kicked and stomped on Declan Cutler, 16, in the “savage” pack attack in March last year.
Justice Rita Incerti in September found he was not guilty of murder or the alternative charge of manslaughter.
A legal principle called “doli incapax” presumes children under the age of 14 lack the capacity to be criminally responsible for their acts.
But if the prosecution can prove the child knew their actions were “seriously wrong in a moral sense”, they can be held responsible despite their age.
At trial, defence barrister Sharon Lacy argued her client, now aged 14, did not know his conduct was “morally wrong” because he lacked “developed moral reasoning” at the time.
Justice Incerti ultimately agreed, finding the boy was incapable of criminal intent.
The brutal killing was carried out by eight youths, some of whom were affiliated with a street gang and captured on CCTV plunging knives into Declan’s body.
“The footage emits no sound but screams of horror,” Justice Incerti said.
A 14-year-old boy, now aged 16, who repeatedly stabbed Declan with a large knife in the frenzied attack pleaded guilty to murder and was sentenced to 15 years’ jail.
Several other teens charged with Declan’s murder, who were aged between 15 and 17 at the time, are currently facing trial.
‘Cookie Monster’ hailed a hero
Walpeup mum Rebecca Payne who baked her abusive husband a poison-laced biscuit before stuffing his lifeless body in a freezer was found guilty of murder.
But locals living in the tiny town told the Herald Sun they hail her a hero.
They believe that by ending his life, Payne saved countless others.
“They should be giving her a medal for saving the lives of people in Walpeup,’’ her friend and local resident John Lovitt said.
Payne, 43, was in June sentenced to 16 years’ jail after she was found guilty by a Supreme Court jury of the murder of Noel Payne, 68.
But in a show of “mercy”, Justice Rita Incerti set a non-parole period of 10 years, allowing Payne to apply for parole in seven years.
The court heard how on September 1, 2020, the mum crushed more than seven of her sleeping pills with a mortar and pestle, before lacing the icing of one biscuit with the powdered poison.
She then handed the deadly biscuit to her husband with a cup of Milo, before she wrapped his unconscious body in a blanket and stashed him in an empty chest freezer.
At trial, Payne detailed to the jury the shocking physical, sexual and emotional abuse she suffered inside the family home.
Despite this, she claimed she did not intend to kill him but send him to sleep, so she would not “cop any abuse” that evening.
But the jury refused to find her guilty of manslaughter and convicted her of murder.
Payne will be eligible for parole in 2030.
Adam Kneale wins landmark payout
A child sex abuse survivor who was molested by a pedophile at Whitten Oval won $5.9m in damages – the most awarded to an abuse survivor by a jury in Australian history.
Adam Kneale sued Footscray Football Club, now the Western Bulldogs, after he suffered years of sexual abuse at the hands of fundraising volunteer and convicted pedophile Graeme Hobbs in the 1980s.
But the Western Bulldogs will appeal the payout, which Mr Kneale’s lawyer said could trigger claims against other clubs.
The Bulldogs denied it knew about the abuse but a Supreme Court jury in November found the club was negligent and awarded Mr Kneale $5,943,151 in damages.
The three-week trial heard Hobbs, now dead, was a “Jack of all trades” at Footscray Football Club and a star fundraising volunteer for the cash-strapped team in the 1980s.
He was also a predator who abused Mr Kneale between 1984 and 1990 in club offices, boardroom, staff toilets, change rooms and a stand, as well as on a bus travelling with the cheer squad to and from Sydney.
Mr Kneale was also exposed to a pedophile ring where he was abused by other men.
He was awarded $3,250,00 for pain and suffering, $2,605,578 for lost earnings and $87,573 for medical expenses.
Mr Kneale was not the only one to secure success in the Supreme Court this year, with I Cook Foods claiming a “bittersweet victory” in November after the court found the catering company was shut down with invalid orders.
But its claim for $50m in damages was dismissed.
‘Highly volatile’: Stark warning after tragic death linked to illegal fireworks
Christmas will “never be the same” for the family of a young man killed in an explosion in Kalkallo, as police warn against buying illegal fireworks online.
Husband allegedly stabbed wife to death hours after family Christmas lunch
A Langwarrin couple had hosted their family for Christmas lunch just hours before the husband allegedly stabbed his wife to death inside their home then called police himself.