Arabic version: المحكمة تحكم على ابن زوج أمه بالسجن تسع سنوات على خلفية العثور على جثة زوج أمه التي تحولت إلى مومياء
A Brisbane Supreme Court has sentenced Nikola Golem to nine years’ imprisonment after he pleaded guilty to manslaughter and interfering with a corpse.
According to ABC News, police discovered the mummified remains of 69-year-old Tomislav Nemes in April 2023 during a welfare check at his Benowa waterfront home. The court heard the body had been in the house for 14 months and that, with time already served, Golem will be eligible for parole next month.
The court was told Golem lied to his mother, who spoke English as a second language and was described as mentally unwell and fragile, and allowed her to sleep beside the decomposing body. Golem and his wife, Dragica Nemes, had been living in the home while Mr Nemes’s remains decayed. Ms Nemes’s daughter Suzanna Belijanski said she was told a “string of lies” when she travelled to the home, and said police took four days to do a welfare check after concerns were raised.
The court heard Mr Nemes had poorly controlled diabetes, back pain and hypertension and that, by 2020, he and his wife had begun to reject Western medication. Justice Rebecca Treston said the man had been “quite simply left to rot.” It was also heard that Mr Golem took away Mr Nemes’s phone after the older man began making financial investments, leaving him cut off from interstate family who could not call for help.
Family members described distress at the discovery. Ms Belijanski said police footage of the welfare check showed Mr Golem and his mother making food in the kitchen while the body lay decomposing in another room. Another daughter, Elizabeth Marzano, said she was “haunted” by thoughts of how her father was left to die without medical care and that for years she had believed he was living a happy retirement.
Mr Golem pleaded not guilty to murder but guilty to manslaughter and interfering with a corpse. He appeared in court in a wheelchair wearing black padded headgear. His defence lawyer, Martin Longhurst, said Golem was remorseful, had significant brain trauma after a car accident as an eight-month-old and had a low IQ of 70, and argued his client had engaged in poor decision-making and feared upsetting his mother. Longhurst asked that Golem be released on parole immediately given time already served.
Related sections: Australia/استراليا | Queensland | General
