Dance floor killer given life sentence

Posted April 12, 2012 16:08:40

A Brisbane court has handed a 21-year-old man a life sentence over a dance floor murder committed three years ago.

Callum Joseph Keys has been found guilty of the stabbing murder of Phillip Halipilias, 20, at the Alexandra Hills Hotel on Brisbane's bayside in 2009.

The Supreme Court heard there had been an altercation between friends of Keys and Mr Halipilias at the hotel the week before the murder.

Keys brought a hunting knife to the hotel the next week and used a fake ID to gain entry, expecting another fight to erupt, prosecutor Glen Cash told the court.

The court was told Keys stabbed his victim in the right side of the chest, rupturing his aorta, and then fled to the toilets leaving Mr Halipilias to bleed out on the dance floor.

After hiding the knife in the cistern of a toilet and removing his shirt, Keys returned to dance with a friend.

The jury deliberated for just over a day before returning the guilty verdict, after which Acting Justice Kerry O'Brien sentenced Keys to life in jail.

Keys, who had long claimed the stabbing was accidental, looked shocked when the verdict was handed down.

He had told police he only meant to cut Mr Halipilias but that the knife plunged into his chest when his arm was bumped.

He pleaded guilty to manslaughter, but the jury's verdict on the higher charge of murder meant they were satisfied he intended to kill or seriously injure Mr Halipilias.

Members of Keys's family, and the parents of the victim, sobbed in the back of the court.

Speaking outside court, Mr Halipilias's father said the family was satisfied with the verdict and that he could not forgive Keys for taking his son's life.

Keys will be eligible for parole after he serves the mandatory minimum of 15 years.


Topics: murder-and-manslaughter, crime, law-crime-and-justice, alexandra-hills-4161, east-brisbane-4169, qld