‘Shocking’ diary twist in Eliah Abdelmessih murder case

An ex-detective has been quizzed about a “shocking” revelation in his police diary about a widower bashed to death with a statue of the Virgin Mary.

Katia Pyliotis’s lawyers want to stop her facing a fifth trial.

A former Victorian homicide detective has been told to stop speculating over a “shocking revelation” in his official police diary that was written as he investigated the case of a widower being beaten to death with a religious statue.

Eliah Abdelmessih was found bludgeoned to death at his Kew home next to a bloody statue of the Virgin Mary and a tin of mangoes in September 2005.

Lawyers for Katia Pyliotis want to stop her facing a fifth trial after her 2017 conviction for the murder was overturned because of a miscarriage of justice.

Former homicide detective Warren Ryan was quizzed in the Supreme Court on Monday about diary entries relating to another woman, Susan Reddie.

Murder victim Eliah Abdelmessih who was fatally bashed to death at his Kew home
Photo: Darren Mcnamara

Ms Reddie, who died in 2012, confessed to killing the elderly man with a religious statue, the court was told.

But Mr Ryan, now with Queensland Police, told previous juries the woman recanted her confession to him at a supermarket car park, which he wrote in his diary. The diary was only found in July this year.

There were no details about the retracted confession in the diary, defence lawyer Dermot Dann said.

Justice Elizabeth Hollingworth hit out at the recantation “story” and urged Mr Ryan to stop speculating about the diary entries and the conversations.

“I’m not remotely interested in your speculating, you’ve done enough speculating in this case,” she said.

Katia Pyliotis (centre left) arrives at the Supreme Court of Victoria, Melbourne before her sentence was handed down.

Instead of the recantation there was another apparent confession, which was a “shocking revelation”, Mr Dann wrote in court documents.

According to the diary entry, Ms Reddie used a religious object to hit the victim because she was “very, very angry and drunk” after he paid her $20 for sex, the court was told.

Prosecutors allege one of the murder weapons was a statue of the Virgin Mary found near the victim’s body.

During previous trials, Mr Ryan gave evidence the other woman was discounted as a suspect because details given of the crime scene and alleged murder weapons did not match, Mr Dann said.

He argued another trial would be “oppressive” and would bring the administration of justice into “disrepute” because of the continued reliance on the former detective’s evidence.

The hearing will continue on Tuesday.

Originally published as ‘Shocking’ diary twist in Eliah Abdelmessih murder case