Mohammad Abdur Rehman Mirza: Trial hears man killed in self-defence then dumped body in Fremantle Harbour

A retail worker accused of murdering a young mother during a late-night sex tryst hid her body in a locked bathroom for days and covered up the smell with an air-freshener while entertaining another woman, a jury has been told. Mohammad Abdur Rehman Mirza, 24, faced trial in the Supreme Court on Tuesday over the murder of Helen Marsuk, 25, at his father’s Gosnell’s unit on December 1, 2022. Ms Marsuk’s body was found floating in the Fremantle Harbour. In her opening address to the jury, prosecutor Katrin Robinson said the State’s case was that Mr Mirza sent a Telegram message inviting Ms Marsuk to his home with the false promise of giving her a “point of meth” for sex. The jury was told they would hear references to “PnP” meaning Pipe and Play. Which was code for having sex for drugs. However, when Mr Mirza failed to produce the drugs a physical fight ensued during which Mr Mirza was stabbed, the jury was told. Ms Robinson said during the altercation he formed a, “murderous intent,” stabbing Ms Marsuk 16 times — eight of those in the back. “Mr Mirza formed a murderous intent either just before he started stabbing her or while he was stabbing her and prevented her from fleeing his house,” Ms Robinson said. Mr Mirza left her body in his locked bathroom for four days — at one stage entertaining another woman in the apartment using air freshener to cover up the smell. Then in the early hours of December 4, he drove to Freemantle Harbour where he dumped her body off Capo D’Orlando Drive. The jury heard hours later a 61 year-old man out squidding spotted a human foot submerged in the water. He leaned over some fencing to take a closer look and saw Ms Marsuk’s body floating face down in the water with stab wounds to her back. He then called the police. The court heard Mr Mirza was arrested two days later and during a police interview over several hours claimed it was not him but a drug dealer with a “bogan beard” and nose piercings who had come to deliver the methamphetamine that night who killed Ms Marsuk. However the following day, in a second police interview he conceded there was no drug dealer and he had fatally stabbed Ms Marsuk in self-defence after she stabbed him in the arm. “I was just stab, stab, stab, stab ... I just kept on stabbing her,” he told police. Although Mr Mirza has pleaded not guilty to murder he has pleaded guilty to interfering with her corpse by dumping her body in the harbour and destroying evidence by getting rid of her wig and clothing. Defence barrister Simon Watters told the jury that Mr Mirza’s false account to police was, “a lie told by him in a panic.” However after talking to another person in police custody - who was in fact an undercover police officer- he changed his account admitting he had killed her. Mr Watters said that night Ms Marsuk became furious when she discovered there were no drugs. “You may think hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. Ms Marsuk became aggressive, upset, you could say, and she took hold of a knife.” Mr Watters said after Ms Marsuk stabbed him in the arm he, ”uses a knife in self-defence.” “She was furious she wasn’t going to get that methamphetamine she craved. When he was striking out he wasn’t necessarily looking where he was stabbing it was a flight or flight situation,” he said. The trial continues.