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John Xypolitos has been found guilty of the 2003 murder of his former girlfriend’s 17-year-old son, Gary Adams.
Mr Xypolitos, 56, went to extrodinary lengths to cover up the killing, dismembering the teenager’s body and disposing them in all around Melbourne.
In his closing address to the jury, Crown prosecutor Andrew Tinney, SC described in graphic detail the premeditated thinking behind the murder.
SC Tinney pointed to the evidence given by an undercover police man, who Xypolitos opened up to.
SC Tinney pointed to the evidence given by an undercover police man, who Xypolitos opened up to.
“Just ask yourselves, how on earth would you cut off the head of a dead person with a hacksaw?” Mr Tinney said.
“What was involved in doing that? What degree of force? How long did it take? How much blood would there be? And to remove the legs. He spoke of removing the limbs as though it was, well, pulling off the petal of a flower.”
After killing the teenager, Mr Xypolitos placed him in a small plastic children’s swimming pool to be able to clean the remnants of blood on the ground.
“He clearly had already decided that he was going to cover up what he had done, but what he needed to do was to make sure that he limited the amount of blood that would end up on the floor of the shed,” SC Tinney said.
“What does that say about the accused? What does it say about the feelings he had for Gary Adams? What does it say about the truth, the real truth about this brutal attack by him on that defenceless boy with the hammer? What does it tell you?”
Mr Xypolitos had been living with his former partner, Jo-Ann Adams, and Gary, her only child, on a property in Cranbourne when the teenager went missing on December 5, 2003.
Xypolitos had lied to Adams saying Gary had been at home in the afternoon and left saying he wouldn’t be home for dinner. Gary was never seen again.
It took 10 years for Xypolitos to be charged and buried some of the teenager’s remains in his mother’s backyard.
Mr Xypolitos has pleaded not guilty on the basis of self defence after he says the teenager attacked him with a screwdiver.
He was remanded for a pre-sentence hearing on Thursday.
Source: The Age
Photo 1st page: John Xypolitos found guilty. Photo: AAP/Julian Smith.
