Alleged killer Katia Pyliotis’ conviction overturned

A woman earlier convicted of murdering lonely widower Elia Abdelmessih – who was found bludgeoned to death alongside a tin of mangoes and a statue of the Virgin Mary – has had her conviction quashed, but may have to face another trial.

Katia Pyliotis (centre left) has had her conviction overturned. Picture: James Ross/AAP

An alleged killer has had her conviction quashed after arguing she was denied a fair trial by a judge who labelled her lawyer’s questions “boring”.

Justice Paul Coghlan also called Katia Pyliotis’ murder defence a “red herring calculated to mislead” and told lawyers that’s what he’d tell the jury.

Pyliotis was jailed for 19 years last year for the murder of lonely widower Elia Abdelmessih, whose bludgeoned body was found alongside a tin of mangoes and a Virgin Mary statue in 2005.

Victoria’s Court of Appeal on Wednesday overturned the conviction and ordered she face trial again for the crime.

She faced three failed trials before being convicted in the fourth.

“It will be a matter for the Director of Public Prosecutions whether the applicant faces trial for a fifth time,” three judges ruled.

But her barrister, Dermot Dann QC, says the court should overturn the conviction because of the judge’s “negative and scathing assessment” of the defence case.

At one point while trial lawyer Richard Edney was questioning a witness, Justice Coghlan interjected to tell him “this is even more boring than the other parts of your cross-examination”.

He made other remarks in front of the jury, including that they’d “still be here 13 years later” hearing crime scene evidence, that “I’ll have to start answering these questions myself”.

Prosecutors had also appealed the sentence, urging the appeal court to increase her time behind bars.