By Erin Pearson
A man accused of helping to dispose of a teenager’s body in a fridge has been released back into the community with an ankle bracelet to restrict his movements.
Eyal Yaffe’s legal team successfully argued on Monday for their client to be granted bail under strict conditions including a $20,000 surety, a curfew, that he surrender his passport and not leave metropolitan Melbourne, and that he fund the electronic monitoring device designed to prevent him from going within 200 metres of the addresses of potential witnesses.
Granted bail: Eyal Yaffe is accused of covering up Isla Bell’s death.Credit: Facebook
Yaffe, 57, is accused of helping cover up the death of 19-year-old Brunswick teen Isla Bell at a St Kilda East apartment in October.
Yaffe allegedly moved a fridge containing Bell’s body to a number of addresses in Melbourne’s south-eastern suburbs, including Hampton and Caulfield South, before the teen’s remains were discovered at a Dandenong tip last week.
Bell’s family were in Melbourne Magistrates’ Court for Monday’s decision, hugging and crying as it was announced Yaffe would be released on bail.
Police allege the 19-year-old was killed by Marat Ganiev, 53, on October 7, and that he and Yaffe worked together to dispose of Bell’s body.
Isla Bell, 19, was described by those who knew her as a vibrant soul.Credit: Facebook
Ian Hill, KC, argued on Friday that there was nothing but circumstantial evidence connecting his client to the alleged murder and no evidence Yaffe knew someone had died.
In opposing bail, Detective Senior Constable Ben Curran said police had linked Yaffe to the fridge and a number of locations where it was kept over the following weeks.
Curran said that on October 8, Yaffe received a call from Ganiev, before cutting short a trip to the country and returning to Melbourne that day.
Curran said that on October 9 a CCTV camera captured Yaffe arriving at Ganiev’s apartment in a RAV4 with a trailer to drop off a black fridge.
More than a week later, the detective said, Yaffe and Ganiev were seen removing an older model fridge, wrapped in clear plastic and black tape, from the home, putting it on a trailer and driving it to locations including Caulfield South and Hampton.
Yaffe was also allegedly seen disposing of Bell’s “distinctive” black and brown bag and camouflage hat shortly after being spoken to by police, Curran said.
After he was interviewed by police at St Kilda police station on October 28, the court heard, Yaffe bought a return flight to Bulgaria, due to leave weeks later. That raised the concern of investigating officers that the 57-year-old could be a flight risk.
On Monday, magistrate Rohan Lawrence said his job was to balance the presumption of innocence, the right to liberty and protection of the community when deciding whether to grant bail.
Zid Yaffe, 28, the son of accused man Eyal Yaffe, leaves court.Credit: Simon Schluter
Lawrence said the case against Yaffe was a serious example of the charge of assisting an offender, which could attract a maximum jail term of 20 years, but acknowledged any trial would be at least a year away.
He said Yaffe had a “significant” criminal history for offences including committing an indictable offence while on bail and failing to appear, but had the strong support of his adult son, who had offered a surety and a place for his father to stay.
Zid Yaffe, 28, had also offered his father work with his commercial and residential painting company, the court heard.
In granting bail, Lawrence said Eyal Yaffe would need to be fitted with an electronic monitoring device before he was released.
Isla Bell’s friends and family members leave court after Monday’s hearing.Credit: Simon Schluter
This, he said, was intended to send an alert to the operating company if the accused man tried to leave Melbourne or go within five kilometres of an airport or within 200 metres of five addresses linked to the case, in suburbs including Hampton, Caulfield South, Bentleigh East and Mulgrave.
“The court must grant bail unless the court finds the accused posses an unacceptable risk. The onus is on the prosecution to prove he is an unacceptable risk,” Lawrence said.
“The allegation is he assisted in … the concealment of Bell’s body for close to three weeks.
“In my view, the prosecution has not established unacceptable risk.”
The case will return to court next year.
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