A woman accused of killing a lonely Melbourne widower will be free on bail until she faces a fifth trial, but her lawyers say it shouldn't go ahead.
Katia Pyliotis was ordered to stand trial again by Victoria's Court of Appeal last month for the 2005 murder of Elia Abdelmessih, whose bludgeoned body was found alongside a Virgin Mary statue.
Pyliotis was released from custody on Wednesday by Supreme Court Justice Elizabeth Hollingworth after prosecutors conceded the circumstances were exceptional and she was not an unacceptable risk to the community.
Pyliotis was found guilty by a jury in 2018 but that verdict was overturned after it was ruled there had been a substantial miscarriage of justice.
Three earlier trials were abandoned before their conclusion.
Her lawyer Dermot Dann QC said the discovery of a police officer's diary, a key piece of evidence previously thought lost, meant the fifth trial should not go ahead.
The officer had told earlier trials another woman, Susan Reddie, recanted two confessions to the crime in a conversation with him in a supermarket car park.
He said the recantation was recorded in his diary and he had no other notes of it.
But the diary, found in a storage facility after the Court of Appeal's decision, did not record a recantation and actually recorded a third confession, Mr Dann said.
He said it noted Ms Reddie, who has since died, admitted using a blue and white statue of Jesus to hit the victim, and she had been drunk and angry.
A blue and white statue of the Virgin Mary had been identified as one of the possible murder weapons, he said.
Mr Dann suggested the information Ms Reddie gave was the type only the killer would know.
But prosecutor Angela Ellis said Ms Reddie said in one confession she "must have done it, the old man had no friends" but later also said there was no way she could have done it.
She said a third confession by Ms Reddie made their case more complex but did not weaken it.
Justice Hollingworth disagreed, finding the prosecution case had "undoubtedly been weakened".
Pyliotis' legal team will make a formal application to the court to stop the fifth trial at a later date.
Mr Dann said questions had previously been raised about whether there was perjured evidence or attempts to pervert the course of justice in the past.
"With the discovery of the diary those questions loom large," he said.
Pyliotis, 38, was freed on a $100,000 surety put up by her mother and will live under a curfew with a sister in Geelong.
Apart from a brief period on bail in 2017, she has been in custody since her arrest in May 2016.
Justice Hollingworth said if a fifth trial went ahead, it would not be until next year.
Australian Associated Press
