Vic: Family members killed 'monstrous' brother - court
By Nick Lenaghan
MELBOURNE, April 14 AAP - A Melbourne mother's fear made her the prisoner of her monstrousson before he was murdered by other family members, a court was told today.
The woman, a local government worker, recounted her 26-year-old son's increasinglystrange and violent behaviour after he returned to live with in their outer suburban home.
The dead man's half-brother, 30, and his sister's fiance, 24, are facing a preliminaryhearing in the Melbourne Magistrates Court over the murder on June 24 last year.
The woman said she was assaulted, abused and threatened by her son after he returnedto live with her in 1996.
His mental state, already troubled, worsened as he took more drugs, including amphetaminesand marijuana, the court was told.
The dead man had build himself a "nest" in the roof, and took apart electric machinesto see if there were voices inside.
He also painted the kitchen black, pulled up the floorboards and believed people werewatching him from the gas pipes, the shower and the wall cavities.
But his mother hid her bruises, in fear of her life if she called police about hisattacks on her, she told the court.
Asked by the fiance's lawyer whether she had been living with a monster, the womanreplied: "He's still my son."
"You were living like a prisoner in your own home for most of that time," the defencelawyer asked.
"I still am," she said.
The names of the victim and family were ordered withheld from any reporting of thematter lest they identify the victim of the alleged sexual assault.
In a summary handed to the court, prosecutor Julian Leckie, SC, detailed the family'stroubled history, including allegations the dead man had sexually assaulted his eight-yearsister from 1990 to 1992.
In 1992, after the girl told her elder half-brother about the attacks, he confrontedthe dead man and the pair fought.
Soon after, the half-brother, then 20, left home for Queensland, lost contact withhis family and returned last year, just three weeks before the alleged murder.
The mother had also sent her daughter away to live in New Zealand and then kept herreturn to Melbourne secret, fearing the dead man "be at her", the court heard.
On June 24 last year the woman phoned her daughter, frustrated with her son's angerand abuse, before falling asleep, the court was told.
According to the summary, the daughter told her recently arrived brother of her fearstheir mother would be assaulted that night.
Her half-brother and fiance then confronted their alleged victim at his home beforebashing him to death.
The committal hearing continues tomorrow before Magistrate Maurice Gurvich.
AAP nl/dk/cjh/de
KEYWORD: MONSTER
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