The Tribune

By LAMECH JOHNSON

Tribune Staff Reporter

ljohnson@tribunemedia.net

A JUDGE did not give an immediate decision on Donna Vasyli's latest bail application in Supreme Court on Thursday as the Australian accused of murdering her husband had hoped.

Senior Justice Stephen Isaacs said he usually would give a summary decision on a bail application but would not do so in this instance given what had transpired the first time the 54-year-old defendant sought a bond within days of her arraignment concerning the March 24 slaying of her millionaire podiatrist husband, Philip Vasyli.

Vasyli will have to wait until Tuesday to know if the judge is minded to release her from the custody before her September 7 trial.

Her lawyers, Elliot Lockhart, QC, and Murrio Ducille, argued that their client’s health has deteriorated since her incarceration due to the conditions at the prison.

Mr Lockhart drew the judge’s attention to Vasyli’s affidavit, which said that she has been constantly feeling weak and nauseous and has been experiencing headaches since a hard fall on June 15.

The lawyer emphasised that his client’s health was at risk the longer she remained in custody and unable to get the necessary medication she required on a regular basis.

These concerns, he added, were highlighted in supporting affidavits filed by two officials with the Australian High Commission, who noted Vasyli’s apparent weight loss.

Mr Lockhart also stressed that his client had a constitutional right to having adequate time and facilities to prepare her defence against a criminal charge.

He said he and Mr Ducille would not be able to be properly instructed in this matter given the limited visiting hours and conditions at the Department of Correctional Services.

Mr Lockhart also rebuked the Crown for not only charging their client on weak evidence but for not supplying the defence with additional documents they had promised at Vasyli’s formal Supreme Court arraignment. He also said that DNA evidence was still not forthcoming, even though the defence would be required to proceed at trial in a few weeks.

Crown respondent Neil Braithwaite countered that all of the arguments being raised by Mr Lockhart were not new and had been considered in both of Vasyli’s earlier bail hearings, in the Supreme Court and the Court of Appeal.

The latter, he said, upheld the judge’s finding that bail should not be granted ahead of trial. Mr Braithwaite maintained the Crown’s position that there was no material change in circumstances.

Vasyli has been in the state’s custody for the past four months. Senior Justice Isaacs had denied her bail within days of her March 30 arraignment in Magistrates Court and then on a second occasion on May 1 after the Court of Appeal had remitted the matter to him to explicitly state why he had denied bail.

In May, the Court of Appeal rejected her bail appeal, prompting her lawyers to consider taking the case to the London-based Privy Council for a final decision.

Her lawyer made a subsequent application for bail, which was heard on Thursday.

Vasyli pleaded not guilty to the murder charge in a formal Supreme Court arraignment before she was given a trial date for September of this year.