Kon Kritikos would do anything for his loved ones.
Danielle Birchall snuck into the Coburg home on the afternoon of November 11, 2020, beat Kon with a weapon and “left him for dead”, prosecutors claim.
The 87-year-old man’s life was taken violently by someone he should have been able to trust, making it a serious example of murder, prosecutor Sarah Thomas told the Supreme Court.
“It was a ferocious and brutal attack upon a vulnerable and defenceless old man who was alone in his home,” she told Birchall’s pre-sentence hearing today.
Birchall told a series of lies to cover up the killing and returned to Kon’s home with her partner, his son George Kritikos, later that evening.
The couple found Kon on the floorboards, surrounded by blood, moaning but still semi-conscious.
George asked his father “who did it?” to which he replied “afti, afti, afti” in Greek, meaning “she did it”.
Kon was taken to hospital but died two weeks later from his injuries.
“I have no life. I might as well be in jail because I have no one now,” George Kritikos said in a statement read to the court.
“I feel traumatised. It’s ruined my life.”
Kon’s nephew said “he was a man who would do anything for those he loved” and the world was a darker place without him, in a statement read to court.
“We are devastated by the brutality of his death, and that someone so kind and fragile had his life stolen so senselessly from his home – his sanctuary,” Pando Novachev said.
Birchall pleaded not guilty to the murder and faced two trials.
The first jury, in July 2023, was discharged after a month and the second jury found her guilty of Kon’s murder in November 2024.
Birchall’s barrister Chris Pearson on Tuesday said Birchall had to accept the jury’s verdict, but still maintained her innocence.
“She went there that afternoon so that she could ask the deceased for financial assistance … she was living a life that was beyond her financial means at that time,” he said.
“The accused dealt with this human being in the sanctity of his own home in a way no human being should be dealt with.
“Her intention was to cause a really serious injury rather than death.”
He said Birchall was psychologically scarred by a difficult upbringing and had an intellectual disability, all of which would make her time in custody more onerous.
Pearson said she accepted she would face a “significant” term of imprisonment, with the maximum penalty for murder being life in prison.
Justice Christopher Beale will sentence Birchall on April 4.
