Police in Queensland have laid an additional 16 charges on the body-in-the-barrel murder accused Zlatko Sikorsky, including torture and deprivation of liberty charges.
Sikorsky, 34, is now facing 18 charges following the death of a teenage girl, Larissa Beilby, in Brisbane. He failed to appear in court on Monday morning and the matter was adjourned for committal in Beenleigh magistrates court on 3 September.
Outside court on Monday morning, Sikorsky’s lawyer, Brendan Ryan, indicated his client would fight the murder charge on a misadventure defence, pending evidence.
Sikorsky was initially charged with one count of murder and one count of interfering with a corpse but now faces 16 other charges, including weapon and drug possession charges, dangerous operation of a vehicle and possessing tainted property.
Police will allege he killed the 16-year-old Brisbane schoolgirl sometime after she was last seen alive in the northern Brisbane suburb of Sandgate on 15 June.
On Monday, Ryan suggested Larissa may have died by accident.
“The murder charge will be defended in due course and that’s going to be a lengthy process before we ever get to trial,” Ryan told reporters. “I’m going to maintain that [misadventure] and we’re going to wait until the autopsy report is provided to police and to my office, and no doubt hopefully misadventure will be open on the basis of that autopsy report.
“Misadventure normally refers to circumstances relating to accidents ... That’s what I’m going to stick with.”
The teenager’s body was found inside a barrel on the back of a ute on Wednesday at a gated community in Stapylton on the northern Gold Coast.
Police had sought the vehicle after a man drove it away from a home at Buccan, south of Brisbane, when they visited the property during their investigation into Larissa’s disappearance.
The discovery of the body sparked a manhunt for Sikorsky, who was eventually tracked to a unit on the Sunshine Coast.
After a 28-hour siege, Sikorsky surrendered without incident on Saturday evening.
Tracy Ann Thomson, 40, from Palmwoods on the Sunshine Coast, has been charged with being an accessory after the fact to murder. Police allege she helped get Sikorsky to the unit complex where the siege unfolded.
Her case was also mentioned in court on Monday and adjourned to 3 September.
A 38-year-old man, who is also charged with being an accessory, did not have his matter mentioned in court on Monday.
Police say they are yet to determine Larissa’s cause of death and are investigating if any other people aided Sikorsky.
