Irma Palasics (middle) was allegedly murdered in 1999 by Joseph Vekony (left) and Steve Fabriczy (right). Photos: ACT Policing/Supplied.
After hearing a knock late at night, Irma Palasics’ neighbours opened their front door to find the pensioner in her dressing gown with blood covering her face.
It was 10 October 1998, and the 72-year-old had just encountered a balaclava-clad man at her home in Red Hill before he knocked her down and then repeatedly punched her in the face, an ACT Supreme Court jury heard.
Steve Fabriczy and Joseph Vekony, both 70, are on trial fighting allegations that they murdered Ms Palasics during a burglary at her home in McKellar on 6 November 1999.
It was the third time Ms Palasics and her husband, Gregor, had been burgled, and on Thursday (19 February), jurors heard about the second burglary, which took place almost a year earlier, when they lived in Red Hill.
Jurors heard Ms Palasics’ own words, as the statement she made to police about this second incident was read to the court.
She said she had walked outside to get lemons from their garage at about 8 pm that night when a balaclava-wearing man came out of the garage, rushed towards her and punched her in the face.
She said she fell to the ground while the man continued punching her in the face, put his hand on her mouth and throat and told her, “Don’t scream”, in an Australian accent.
But she fought back by trying to scratch him and pulled off his balaclava, which she said revealed the face of a 20-year-old man with short golden hair.
“I continued to try and scratch his face. I did not recognise this person,” she said.
Jurors have previously heard it was alleged that Mr Vekony’s DNA was later linked to this balaclava.
During the struggle, another balaclava-clad man came out of the garage and the two intruders fled.
“I felt a lot of pain on the left side of my face,” she said.
She said she tried to call police on her phone, but the line was dead so she went next door to her neighbours’ home to make the call.
One of these neighbours told jurors she and her partner had been watching television that night when they heard “sort of a screaming”.
They originally thought it was “young people mucking around”, but then decided it didn’t sound right, so they went outside to look around.
The neighbour said she saw Ms Palasics looking unsteady in her backyard, while a man walking his dog came around the corner, also saying he had been drawn by the screaming.
She and her partner went back inside when there was a knock at the door and they opened it to find Ms Palasics on the other side with blood over her face.
She helped her into the house, called the police, and Ms Palasics’ daughter.
“I remember that there wasn’t a lot of coherence. She was obviously injured and hurt,” the neighbour said.
“I imagine that she was in shock.”
She said that as English was not Ms Palasics’ first language, it was hard for her to articulate what happened.
Photos the police took of Ms Palasics that night were shown to the jury. In them, she could be seen sitting on a couch, staring into the distance, with blood appearing to start under her eye, then spreading over her face.
Jurors were then taken forward in time to the night of 6 November 1999, when the Palasics lived on Grover Crescent in McKellar.
Another neighbour, who would have been 17 at the time, said he drove away from his home around 8:50 pm that night when a white single-cab ute with no lights pulled out in front of him onto the crescent.
“I was sort of startled by them driving without their lights on,” he said.
“I think it was either a small Toyota Hilux or a Subaru Brumby.”
In his original statement, he said, “I saw that the vehicle was driven by an adult male in his early 20s” and “the male had a fair complexion”.
A then-19-year-old who lived directly opposite from the Palasics said she and her flatmates had been watching the film The Silence Of The Lambs when they heard noises around 10 pm that night.
“They seemed to be like thumping sounds that were made on our roof,” she said.
“It was at that point in time when Hannibal Lecter had attacked the ambulance officers.”
Later, they realised lots of police officers were outside their house.
Mr Fabriczy pleaded guilty to one count of burglary as he has admitted going to the Palasics’ home on 6 November 1999, but he pleaded not guilty to murder. Mr Vekony pleaded not guilty to charges that included murder and two counts of burglary.
The trial continues before Justice David Mossop.
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