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Serial killer convicted again

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Dupas. Halvagis.

George and Christina Halvagis leave court in Melbourne.
Photo: (AAP Image/Julian Smith)

21 Nov 2010

Serial killer Peter Norris Dupas has again been convicted of murdering Mersina Halvagis at a Melbourne cemetery 13 years ago, according to reports from The Age.

Following three-and-a-half days of deliberations, a Supreme Court jury found the 57-year-old guilty of fatally stabbing the 25-year-old as she tended to her grandmother’s grave on November 1, 1997.

Dupas, who had pleaded not guilty, was un-emotive as the jury foreman read out the verdict. Dupas was first convicted of the murder in 2007 and sentenced to life in prison.

However the Court of Appeal quashed the conviction last year after finding that Supreme Court judge Philip Cummins had failed to warn the jury adequately about matters that could have undermined witnesses accounts.

The retrial, which began in late October, heard that Ms Halvagis had been stabbed 33 times in her chest and sustained more than 80 separate wounds. A pathologist deemed it a frenzied attack inflicted by a sharp knife.

The retrial jury was told that in 2000 Dupas had been convicted of the murder of psychotherapist Nicole Patterson.

They were also told Dupas had been found guilty in 2004 of the stabbing murder of prostitute Margaret Maher.Dupas’ defence lawyer Graham Thomas, SC, urged the jury to base their verdict on the evidence rather than assuming that “if it happened once it could happen again”. Dupas is already serving two life terms.

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