Woman killed partner’s dad in ‘vicious’ attack

The daughter-in-law of an elderly Greek man murdered the 87-year-old only to feign the horror discovery hours later, a jury has found.

Following four days of deliberations, a Victorian Supreme Court jury on Tuesday found Danielle Lee Birchall guilty of murdering Kon Kritikos almost four years ago.

She had pleaded not guilty, with her lawyer putting forward an alternative hypothesis that her partner, Mr Kritikos’s son, was involved in a plot to steal from the elderly man and lied to police to frame his wife.

Emergency services found Mr Kritikos critically injured in the foyer of his Coburg home on November 11, 2020, after Birchall and her then-husband George Kritikos called for help.

The pair had been driving past about 10.45pm and stopped to check on him after noticing his bedroom light was not on.

George would later tell police he asked his father who attacked him, with the elderly man responding; “they were big” and “her, her, her” in Greek.

Mr Kritikos suffered horrific head injuries and died after he was taken off life support 13 days later when doctors determined his condition was unsurvivable.

The jury was told he was alone in his home after his wife, Effie Kritikos, had been injured and taken to hospital following a fall on a nearby street a day earlier.

Prosecutors, led by Sarah Thomas, argued he was killed by Birchall in a “vicious assault” when she visited the home between 3.30pm and 5pm.

They said noises heard by the neighbours, bloody footprints and lies told by Birchall when she was interviewed by police pointed “irresistibly” to her being responsible.

Ms Thomas suggested there was a financial motive for the attack, with Birchall knowing Mr Kritikos kept large amounts of cash at the home.

“Money was tight, money was needed and money, you might think, was on Danielle Birchall’s mind that day,” she said.

Two neighbours working from home due to Covid restrictions, Jonathon Evans and Emily Thompson, said they heard thuds and groans coming from the home about 4.30pm.

Bloody footprints matched to Birchall were found through the house and evidence from the scene showed the killer had used the bathroom to wash off blood.

Ms Thomas said the murder weapon was not found, with a forensic pathologist confirming his injuries were “consistent” with a sharp implement such as a gardening mattock.

At trial, Birchall’s defence barrister Chris Pearson labelled the case against his client “complete and arrant nonsense”, questioning why, on the prosecution case, she would leave Mr Kritikos alive to identify her.

He raised an alternative hypothesis with the jury that Mr Kritikos was killed in a burglary gone wrong, possibly organised by his own son.

The defence lawyer suggested George and the couple’s alleged heroin dealer, Nathan Stone, had arranged for the home to be burgled by an unknown associate while Mr Kritikos was asleep.

He said both men had extensive criminal records and George “wrongly believed” his dad had about $40,000 cash in his home.

Mr Pearson submitted the claim that Mr Kritikos said “her, her, her” in Greek was a deliberate lie invented by George two days later after police warned him he was a suspect.

“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 argued.

Both George Kritikos and Mr Stone denied they were involved in Mr Kritikos’s death and Mr Stone denied he was ever a heroin dealer.

Birchall will return to court for a presentence hearing at in February next year.