Victoria Bitter: The Jaidyn Leskie Story

A "Jailhouse" Confession

Some speculate that the jury might have reached a different verdict if it had known that a fellow inmate claimed Domaszewicz confessed to him. According to the statement, Domaszewicz told the fellow jailbird that Jaidyn had been injured when the car they were working on slipped off a jack and broke his arm. He allegedly admitted that he had bandaged the arm and given the boy the antidepressant, and that the boy had fallen asleep but later woke up in immense pain. Frustrated that he couldn't comfort the boy, Grishka is purported to have said, he threw the screaming toddler across the room and the youngster hit his head and died.

Perhaps authorities were reluctant to use the confession because of its source. Jurors often view jailhouse informants with suspicion -- even those badgered by authorities into coming forward. The truth was, the prosecution was already hobbled by the fact that several of their witnesses, Hopkinson and Kenny Penfold to name just two, had already strained the jury's willingness to suspend disbelief.

Perhaps they were troubled by the fact that the purported confession seemed to suggest that the child had been killed in a moment of anxiety and confusion. Whatever the reason, prosecutors never introduced the confession into evidence.

For his part, Lovitt told Crime Library, he doubts the confession would have changed the verdict. The way he sees it, "some rather pathetic allegations were belatedly made at the end of the Crown case that Domaszewicz had confessed whilst in gaol to several inmates. The main allegation came from a tawdry source, Shane Foley, a dedicated armed robber and burglar, whom I recently cross-examined when he made similar allegations in another murder trial! I christened him 'Father Foley' because he was always hearing confessions!"

"Frankly, the 'confessions' were laughable, and came from totally discreditable sources," Lovitt continued "Moreover, they simply repeated the police theory, and the Crown knew that we could have driven a truck through them forensically. They were also alleged to have been made at least 9 months earlier, when the police were taping every move of my client in custody, including listening in to his legal visits! Yet, there was not the slightest suggestion that any 'admission' had been made on tape."