Serial Killer Peter Dupas has been ordered to pay the legal costs of the Seven Network after his application for two episodes of Killing Time to be suppressed were denied. Dupas was seeking an injunction to stop two episodes going to air on the basis that it would interfere with his right to fair trial if his conviction of the murder of Mersina Halvagis is overturned.
Victorian Supreme Court judge Emilios Kyrou refused to grant the injunction, saying the matters portrayed in the episodes were already in the public domain. Justice Kyrou has ordered Dupas pay the Seven Network’s legal costs for work performed on October 19, the day of the injunction hearing.
He said Dupas should have accepted the Seven Network’s offer to discontinue the proceeding without incurring any cost liability, or to seek an adjournment until late November.
“In my opinion, the plaintiff acted unreasonably in not accepting the defendant’s offer of October 18, 2012 on that day or, at the very least, on the morning of October 19, 2012, prior to the hearing,” Justice Kyrou said.
Dupas made a jailhouse confession to murdering Ms Halvagis to former lawyer and fellow inmate Andrew Fraser, on whose life Killing Time is based. Two years ago Dupas, 59, was jailed for life with no parole. He is also serving two life sentences for murdering Nicole Patterson and Margaret Maher.
