Appeal ... killer Peter Dupas has won the right to appeal one of his murder convictions. Picture: Andrew Tauber
Dupas can appeal against murder conviction
Tried and failed two other appeals
Judge called him a psychopath
SERIAL killer Peter Norris Dupas has won the right to continue an appeal against his conviction for the 1997 murder of a woman as she tended her grandmother`s grave.
Dupas, 54, already serving two life terms without parole for two other murders in the 1990s, was last year sentenced to a third life term for the vicious stabbing murder of Mersina Halvagis at Fawkner Cemetery, in Melbourne`s north on November 1, 1997.
His appeal had lapsed because his lawyers failed to apply for Victorian Legal Aid funding in time. But Court of Appeal Justice Robert Redlich today ruled the appeal would be reinstated.
Dupas has unsuccessfully tried to appeal two earlier murder convictions for the 1997 murder of Margaret Maher and the murder of Nicole Patterson two years later.
While in Port Philip Prison, Dupas spoke with a former solicitor and drug smuggler, Andrew Fraser, about DNA from a glove at the scene of Ms Maher`s murder and added that he had left no forensic evidence at Fawkner Cemetery.
Fraser testified against Dupas, recalling his comment about forensics, and re-enacting a macabre pantomime that Dupas had done to show how he killed Ms Halvagis.
Dupas, who also has three rape convictions, was described by Justice Philip Cummins during the trial for Mersina Halvagis` murder as a psychopath with no remorse or prospect of rehabilitation.
