Man jailed for nine years for manslaughter of Cypriot in Brisbane
A man has been jailed for nine years over the manslaughter of 26-year-old Cypriot Ioli Hadjilyra in a park in Brisbane, Australia in 2019.
The Daily Mail reported that 38-year-old Bradley Scott Edwards had been due on Monday to stand trial for the murder of Hadjilyra, but instead pleaded guilty to manslaughter.
He faced Brisbane Supreme Court on Friday, where he was handed a nine-year sentence with parole eligibility on December 9 due to four years and two months time served.
On September 4, 2019, council workers at Kalinga Park in Brisbane found Hadjilyra’s battered body alongside some of her artwork.
A precise cause of death was not determined but a pathologist said it likely involved smothering or neck compression, with complications from drug toxicity.
Originally from Cyprus, she was a sketch artist.
According to the facts of the case, Edwards and Hadjilyra met in Brisbane’s city centre and travelled together to the park via public transport to buy drugs, but Edwards was seen leaving alone.
He was arrested two weeks later and accepted that he could be seen in CCTV footage with Hadjilyra, also telling an undercover officer that he could not remember much as he had smoked 15 doses of methamphetamine and not slept for nine days.
Prosecutor Elizabeth Kelso said that Hadjilyra had a long history of mental health struggles and had issues with drug use.
The court heard Edwards had a long history of offences after being sentenced for rape and torture as a juvenile offender.
Defence barrister Jacob Robson said the accused was remorseful and that “he recognises how he left the body was particularly deplorable”.
The court also heard that Edwards had a learning disability and had been treated for schizophrenia with auditory hallucinations while on remand.
Justice Sue Brown said prosecutors had accepted it was not his intention to cause Hadjilyra’s death and took into account his abusive childhood and mental health issues, stressing however that “You still did a terrible thing in the acts that took her life”.
She said Hadjilyra had planned to visit her mother’s grave, and that the tragedy had only increased the family’s suffering.
“You left her alone like she was worthless,” the judge said. “She wasn’t, she was someone’s daughter, sister, friend, she was loved”.