Two men sentenced for 1999 manslaughter of Irma Palasics

The two men found guilty of manslaughter over the 1999 cold case killing of Irma Palasics have both been jailed for more than a decade.

Joseph Vekony and Steve Fabriczy, now in their 70s, were linked to the violent home invasion in Canberra by DNA left on a milk bottle and a water container in the couple's fridge.

Today, in the ACT Supreme Court, Fabriczy was sentenced to 16 years and six months in jail, while Vekony was sentenced to 20 years, due to his involvement in an earlier burglary at the couple's home.

Fabriczy was sentenced to a non-parole period of 11 years, and Vekony was sentenced to at least 12 years behind bars.

The pair was arrested after an elaborate undercover police sting using the controversial 'Mr Big' technique.

They were both found guilty of manslaughter earlier this year.

'Violent home invasion of elderly citizens minding their own business'

Mrs Palasics and her husband Gregor had been bashed, bound and gagged in their home, as they settled in for the evening.

The thieves ransacked the house, stealing $30,000 from a hidden compartment in the kitchen and fleeing, leaving the 72-year-old dead and her husband injured.

In sentencing, Justice David Mossop said Vekony was "almost certain to die in jail" because he had been diagnosed with terminal liver cancer.

He said the two men were "equally culpable" for the 1999 crime, and intended to commit a "dangerous and unlawful act".

He said their "motive was clearly greed" due to the theft of $30,000 during the burglary.

The judge also detailed Mrs Palasics's extensive injuries, including the multiple abrasions, broken nose and bruising she suffered before her death.

Justice Mossop said the men would have had to step over Mrs Palasics lying on the ground to ransack the house.

"I do not accept the submission that one or other of the men was unaware of her lying in the hallway," he said.

Justice Mossop described the crime as "a violent home invasion of elderly citizens who were minding their own business".

"It's obviously offending that needs to be denounced, punished and from which other people need to be deterred," he said.

But he also pointed to the fact that Vekony had not committed other offences since the 1990s and was living with terminal cancer.

He described Vekony's personal circumstances as "unfortunate".

"He has, however, during the 23 years since the offending … lived his life as if he was innocent."

The judge said Vekony's condition was likely to lead to "increased frailty and reduced mobility", making him "vulnerable to injury and assault" in jail.

In his remarks about Fabriczy, Justice Mossop said the 71-year-old had some health problems including cardiac arrhythmia.

He said Fabriczy would likely spend more time in jail than Vekony, "and during a period of increased frailty", but noted that Fabriczy had shown "no acceptance of responsibility or remorse".

"He is now an old man, and has lived his life without yet being held accountable," Justice Mossop said.

'They need to now pay for that'

Earlier this week, Mrs Palasics's family gave victim impact statements to the court, with her grandson saying the family had been suffering through a "life sentence of grief" since her brutal death.

Today, after the sentences were handed down, the couple's grandson, John Mikita, said his family could not "undo what has happened".

"For 26 long years we asked for one thing: that those responsible be found and be held accountable. Today, this has finally happened," he said.

Mr Mikita said the sentences for each of the offenders were "a good start".

"The thing that probably distresses us a little bit at the moment the most is just the non-parole period, the fact that one of them will be able to walk out of the jail in 11 years," he said.

He said he did not believe Vekony or Fabriczy thought they had done anything wrong.

He also called for the person who told the two guilty men about his grandparents and the valuables in their home to come forward.

"There is still somebody in our community, and I expect that it's in the Canberra community, that knows or knew my grandparents and gave information to these two offenders to let them know that they should come and rob them," he said.

"But if that person is out in the community, all we can ask is if they come forward, they can call Crime Stoppers.

"Because that is something that we still don't know an answer to, and we'll have to still live with that."

The trial

The trial went for nearly eight weeks, with the jury deliberating on charges of murder or manslaughter, as well as a raft of other charges related to the home invasion, including assaults and theft.

At the start of the trial, Fabriczy pleaded guilty to involvement in the burglary, but always denied any involvement in the violence.

The jury found otherwise, convicting both men of the violent attacks, but stopping short of the charge of murder, finding both guilty of manslaughter.

During the undercover police operation that led to his arrest, Fabriczy made disclosures, though he always stopped short of telling anyone what actually went on in the house.

Vekony told no one anything, insisting he was never there.

The defence suggested caution was needed in sentencing because no one knew who did what in the house.

But prosecutors called for the maximum penalty of 20 years, saying it was at the worst end of the charge of manslaughter.

Why were they targeted?

Just how Vekony and Fabriczy knew where to find Irma and Gregor Palasics on the fateful night in 1999 remains a mystery.

But the evidence showed they were a target for thieves, three times.

In the first robbery in 1997 at their then-home in the Canberra suburb of Red Hill, neither of the Palasics was home when someone broke in, stealing more than $100,000 in cash stored in biscuit tins under the house.

A year later, in the second robbery, Vekony and a person who has never been identified were surprised by Irma, who had gone to the garden to get a lemon for her tea.

That is when she was assaulted by Vekony, who punched her to the ground, as she told him: "Don't kill me, don't kill me".

In the course of the attack, Mrs Palasics pulled a balaclava from Vekony's head, which later yielded a DNA sample critical to solving the case.

After the second robbery, the couple left their long-term home, moving across town to McKellar.

But someone had revealed their change of address, with tragic consequences in the form of the fatal 1999 burglary.