Ivan Deak pleads guilty to lesser charge after father’s death following Lethbridge confrontation

A Bell Post Hill man accused of bludgeoning his own father to death with a vacuum pole will not face trial, after pleading guilty to a lesser charge.

The Burrows Rd house where Ivan Deak Sr was assaulted and later died in hospital.

A Bell Post Hill man accused of bludgeoning his own father to death with a vacuum pole will not face trial, after pleading guilty to a lesser charge.

Ivan Deak Jr, 62, was last year committed to stand trial for murder over the death of his 86-year-old father, Ivan Deak Sr, in Lethbridge in 2022.

Mr Deak was alleged to have assaulted his father at his Burrows Rd home on August 6.

Homicide detectives charged Mr Deak after his father died in hospital several days later.

The 86-year-old suffered many injuries and bruising, a court heard, including a nasal fracture, a throat fracture and significant injuries to his head.

In a committal hearing in June last year, it was alleged Mr Deak called his father “a vampire” who was “sucking the life out of everyone” and yelled “you killed my mother” before committing the assault inside a laundry at the address.

Mr Deak’s lawyer, Sarah Thomas, told the court the deceased was an “86-year-old man with a history of violence” and not as defenceless as others of that age.

Ms Thomas told the court a doctor from the Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine, who examined Mr Deak Sr’s body, had stated he had died not from blunt force trauma, but instead from a stroke.

Prosecutor John Dickie told the court a vacuum pole “covered in blood” was found in the laundry.

The murder charge was dropped just days before the trial was set to begin in May, with Mr Deak instead to face a trial on a charge of manslaughter.

The Geelong Advertiser can reveal that trial, which was set to begin later this month, will also not be going ahead.

Mr Deak pleaded guilty to one charge of intentionally causing serious injury on July 4.

A pre-sentencing hearing will take place in the Victorian Supreme Court next week.

Originally published as Ivan Deak pleads guilty to lesser charge after father’s death following Lethbridge confrontation