Peter Dupas - Murder of Mersina Halvagis - Arrest

Arrest

After obtaining a court order granting permission to interview Dupas in relation to Halvagis' murder, police collected Dupas from HM Prison Barwon on 2 September 2006, taking him to the St Kilda Road Police Headquarters in Melbourne for questioning. On 11 September 2006, police charged Dupas with the murder of Mersina Halvagis, after disgraced Melbourne lawyer, Andrew Fraser, revealed Dupas confessed to the killing of Halvagis while gardening weeds in Port Phillip Prison during 2002.

Fraser told police he once found a homemade knife concealed among weeds at Port Phillip Prison and he called Dupas over to inspect it, which is when the confession occurred:

"We regularly used to find stuff hidden in the garden, drugs, weapons and other stuff. I once found a homemade knife and called Dupas over to show it to him. He took it off me and started handling it, almost caressing it in a sexual way. Dupas then started saying 'Mersina, Mersina' over and over with this strange look on his face. I was certainly left in no doubt that Dupas murdered Mersina. "This wasn't some sort of jailhouse confession where somebody has gone in and sat in a cell one night and had a brew with another prisoner and somebody has allegedly said something. It's a lot stronger than that. Dupas and I spoke regularly, just the two of us. This was over months and months that he was talking to me and confiding in me. "There was one occasion when another prisoner came up to us when we were gardening and started abusing Dupas. This prisoner was yelling at Dupas saying, 'You killed Mersina, you killed Mersina'. "After he had gone, Dupas turned to me and said 'How does that cunt know I did it?'

After agreeing to give evidence against Dupas, Fraser was released from Fulham Correctional Centre in Sale on 11 September 2006, two months early of his five-year sentence for drug trafficking. The Victorian government has said Fraser is now eligible to apply for a share of the A$1 million reward offered for information leading to an arrest on Halvagis' murder.

Read more about this topic:  Peter Dupas, Murder of Mersina Halvagis

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