Major update in alleged father-in-law murder

A jury has begun deliberations in the trial of a woman accused of savagely murdering her father-in-law.

Kon Kritikos, 87, died in hospital 13 days after he was found critically injured in the blood-soaked foyer of his Coburg home, in Melbourne’s inner north, on November 11, 2020.

Four months later his son’s partner, Danielle Lee Birchall, was charged with murder and is facing trial in the Victorian Supreme Court after pleading not guilty.

On Wednesday afternoon, Justice Christopher Beale sent the 12-member jury out to deliberate after four weeks of evidence and arguments from both the prosecution and defence.

“You’ve heard everything now; the evidence, arguments and my charge,” he said shortly before 3.30pm.
“With a final reminder the verdict must be unanimous you can now retire.”

Earlier on Wednesday, the court was told the jury planned to leave early to allow a “fresh start” for deliberations on Thursday.

Prosecutors, led by Sarah Thomas, allege Ms Birchall attacked the elderly man in the afternoon of November 11, only to feign a horror discovery hours later.

“Afti, afti, afti, meaning, she did it, she did it, she did it”, the Greek-speaking Mr Kritikos allegedly told his son George Kritikos when he was found shortly before 11pm, Ms Thomas said in her closing address.

Prosecutors allege the accused woman “hatched a plan” to rob Mr Kritikos, knowing he kept a considerable amount of cash in a lockbox, amid financial difficulties.

She needed money to buy an $8,000 Holden Barina the following day, to care for her horses and to fund her and George’s heroin addiction, Ms Thomas alleged.

The jury was told Ms Birchall attended the Reynolds St home about 3.30pm on November 11, later telling police she was there to pass a message to Mr Kritikos about his wife.

His wife, Effie Kritikos, had been taken to hospital a day earlier after a fall, with Ms Birchall saying she’d received a call from the hospital saying they were keeping her overnight.

But Ms Thomas told the jury the last call from the hospital was shortly before 1pm, around the time Ms Birchall and George had first visited Mr Kritikos that day.

Ms Thomas pointed the jury to the evidence of two neighbours, Jonathon Evans and Emily Thompson, who both said they heard several thuds and groans coming from the home about 4.30pm.

Mr Evans told the jury he knocked on the front door, with Ms Birchall allegedly responding from behind the closed door; “It’s George, George is upset”.

Ms Thomas told the court it was the prosecution case Mr Kritikos was lying seriously injured in the foyer on the other side of the door.

“She reassured Jonathon that everything was okay and he took her at her word,” she said.

Ms Thomas said Ms Birchall allegedly left about 5pm and arrived back at her Kurunjang home – about 40km away – at 6.42pm wearing different clothes and shoes.

She told the jury Ms Birchall and George met up with Nathan Stone, allegedly their heroin dealer, at the Parkview Hotel before visiting Mr Stone’s house and a Red Rooster.

When called to give evidence, Mr Stone denied he sold heroin.

Driving home, the couple visited Mr Kritikos’ home about 10.48pm where the gruesome discovery was made.

Ms Thomas told the court bloody footprints through the property were allegedly identified as belonging to Ms Birchall, arguing they were likely from earlier in the day before the blood had dried.

“What we say is that the noises that were heard by the neighbours, the footprints and the accused’s presence in the house at the time all point irresistibly to the accused being the person who attacked Kon,” Ms Thomas said.

In his reply, defence barrister Chris Pearson described the case against Ms Birchall as “complete and arrant nonsense”.

He told the jury the claim Mr Kritikos said “afti, afti, afti” was a deliberate lie by George to pin the death on his partner after he was warned by police he was a suspect.

Mr Pearson said footage from the first police on the scene captured George saying his father had said; “they were big,” and “he was trying to say something but all his teeth are gone”.

The first mention of “afti, afti, afti”, Mr Pearson said, occurred two days later after George was released by police and was talking to a neighbour.

“George the liar has deliberately lied in order to cast the blame on her, Danielle Birchall, who’s been his punching bag for years and years,” he said.

“As far as he’s concerned, she can now go down for the murder of his dad just so long as he doesn’t.”

Mr Pearson questioned why, if Ms Birchall was “callous and sociopathic enough” to attack Mr Kritikos for money, would she have forgotten the lockbox and left him alive to identify her.

“This is just a broken down prosecution case that goes nowhere,” he said.

He said Ms Birchall had driven to visit her horses after visiting Mr Kritikos and changed her clothes because it had rained.

Ms Birchall’s defence put forward an alternative explanation for his death, suggesting George and Mr Stone had arranged for someone to burgle his dad’s home while he was asleep.

“Nathan Stone and he had arranged a run-through at Kon’s house,” he said.

“George Kritikos believed – wrongly, as it turned out – believed that his father had 40 or 45 thousand dollars of cash there.

“That is what this is all about.”

Mr Pearson suggested George had been warned the burglary had gone wrong, which is why he drove “like a bat out of hell” to his dad’s home.

Both George Kritikos and Nathan Stone repeatedly denied having anything to do with the death under cross examination.

Mr Pearson pointed to the evidence of a second neighbour, Suzi Cox, who said she overheard “raised voices” about 9.30pm to 9.45pm.

An hour later, Mr Pearson said, Ms Cox for the first time hears muffled grunting sounds coming from the house.

Mr Pearson told the jury any inconsistencies with his client’s police interview could be explained by the shock of finding her father-in-law with horrific injuries, her poor short term memory and that she was coming down off heroin.

The trial continues.