Robert Ian Trebeck, convcited murderer of Alexis Jeffery, has appeal against 2019 guilty verdict dismissed

The man found guilty of the 2014 murder of mother of three Alexis Jeffery has had an appeal against the conviction dismissed, here’s what killer Robert Ian Trebeck tried to argue in court.

A MAN who was found guilty of the 2014 murder of a woman in Goondiwindi has had an appeal against the conviction rejected by the Supreme Court of Queensland.

In a decision delivered last week in Brisbane, an appeal launched by Robert Ian Trebeck was dismissed.

The court was told that Trebeck, now 40, was found guilty of the 2014 murder of 24-year-old mother of three Alexis Jeffery after a 12 day trial in Toowoomba Supreme Court in 2019 and jailed for life with a non-parole period of 20 years.

The Supreme Court of Queensland Court of Appeal was told that the jury found Trebeck attacked Ms Jeffery and strangled her to death with the leg of the jeans she had been wearing, with her body then dumped on the bank of the Macintyre River where it was found in the early hours of March 16, 2014.

Farm labourer Robert Trebeck 33 brought into the Bowen Police Station after his arrest. Photo Ric Frearson

“The appellant (Trebeck) appeals his conviction on the ground that the verdict was unreasonable,” Justice Peter Flanagan said in handing down the court’s decision.

“The appellant submits that the jury, having regard to the evidence, could not have been satisfied that the prosecution had excluded beyond reasonable doubt the reasonable hypothesis that another person killed the deceased.”

Justice Flanagan said when considering the evidence heard during the trial it was “reasonably open to the jury” that they could be satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that Trebeck was guilty of murder.

As part of the appeal, Trebeck’s legal counsel put forward evidence that another man killed Ms Jeffery, including that he was seen with her on the night prior to her murder, that he was sending text messages with a desire to meet up with women and that there was no evidence excluding his return to Goondiwindi, with a vehicle matching the description of the man’s vehicle seen in the vicinity of the crime scene about 4am on March 16.

An undated photo of murder victim Alexis Jeffery. Robert Trebeck was found guilty in 2019 of murdering the 24-year-old Goondiwindi mother-of-three whose body was found partially clothed on the banks of the Macintyre river in 2014. (AAP Image/Facebook)

“This evidence, when considered in the context of the whole of the evidence, does not render the verdict unreasonable on the basis that it was unreasonable to exclude (the second man) as the killer beyond reasonable doubt,” he said.

While Justice Flanagan said the second man’s lies didn’t connect him to the murder, while Trebeck’s “evolving lies related to matters that incriminated him”.

Despite claiming the second man was present at the scene there was CCTV evidence that suggested he was not involved, and there was DNA evidence on Ms Jeffery’s jeans that suggested Trebeck had removed them.

The court was also told Trebeck was seen with Ms Jeffery close to the time she died, and his lies incriminated him.

The appeal was dismissed.