An obsessively jealous bodybuilder who violently stabbed to death his ex-partner in front of her children and her mother in Endeavour Hills has lost his bid for appeal.
Sven Lindemann, 53, pleaded guilty to murdering 39-year-old Monique Anita Lezsak, as well as recklessly causing injury to Ms Lezsak’s daughter in 2023.
He had used six knives in total, breaking two of them, in the “frenzied”, “brutal and protracted” attack to Ms Lezsak’s head, neck and chest.
Her 10-year-old daughter, who tried to desperately defend her mum, also suffered five knife wounds to her hands and arm.
Last year, Lindemann was jailed by the Victorian Supreme Court for 31 years with a 25-year non-parole period.
On 8 December, the Victorian Court of Appeal refused his leave to appeal.
Justices Kristen Walker, Rowena Orr and Peter Kidd rejected Lindemann’s claim that his jail term and non-parole period was “manifestly excessive”.
“This was a very serious example of murder. Ms Lezsak died in her own home at the hands of an enraged and jealous partner, from whom she was attempting to separate.
“The applicant’s attack on Ms Lezsak was brutal and protracted…
“While the judge made favourable findings about the applicant’s prospects of rehabilitation, this remained grave and unprovoked offending in which the applicant took the life of his intimate partner, physically harmed her child, and forever changed the lives of her family and others close to her.”
Lindemann argued his term far exceeded other sentences for intimate-partner murders, even for those with a non-guilty plea and went to trial.
But such a submission was “too simplistic”, the judges ruled.
The judges also dismissed Lindemann’s claim that the original judge erred in their approach to applying his previous good character and to the burdens he’d face in jail due to his concerns for family.
This year, State Coroner John Cain – in examining Ms Lezsak’s murder – recommended a public campaign to better inform people of the risks of controlling, coercive ex-partners.
He also recommended that Victoria funds a support service specifically for the “invisible” children bereaved by domestic homicide.
Currently, families were accessing specialist services interstate because they had no other option.
This month, the Government pledged to create a new crime for coercive controlling behaviour against partners – soon after voting against a similar bill introduced by the State Opposition.
