Overview
- The Brisbane Supreme Court on Friday sentenced 51-year-old Nikola Golem to nine years for manslaughter and interfering with a corpse and the judge allowed credit for almost three years already served in custody.
- Golem will be eligible to apply for parole on August 21 after the court reduced his sentence for time in custody and considered his serious health and cognitive impairments.
- Police found the partially mummified remains of 69-year-old Tomislav Nemes in the Benowa home during a welfare check in April 2023, about 14 months after he died in February 2022.
- Court evidence said Golem lied to his stepmother, confiscated the deceased's phone and cut him off from relatives, while the household's refusal of conventional medical care left Nemes with poorly controlled diabetes and other chronic conditions.
- The defence emphasised Golem’s childhood brain injury, low IQ and ongoing medical problems as mitigation, the stepmother has not been charged and the case has prompted family distress and renewed scrutiny of how welfare checks and police responses were handled.