A migrant hero who came to Australia in search of a better life laid dead as his wife slept next to him, his stepson using towels to stop the smell.
Yugoslavia-born Tomislav Nemes was found dead, decaying in his bed at his Gold Coast home in early 2023.
He had died 14 months earlier, aged 69, in February 2022.
On Friday, Brisbane Supreme Court was told of the ways Mr Nemes’ stepson Nikola Golem deceived those around him, including his mother and Mr Nemes’ wife Dragica Nemes, to conceal his stepfather’s death for more than a year.
Golem was charged with murder and interference with a corpse.
The 51-year-old pleaded guilty to the alternative charge of manslaughter, which was accepted by the crown, alongside a guilty plea to interference with a corpse.
Ms Nemes was never charged in the matter.
The court was told Golem lied to his mother and Mr Nemes’ family, telling them Mr Nemes was being looked after by doctors and nurses and was in a coma but ultimately getting better.
Prosecutors submitted Ms Nemes slept next to her husband of almost 30 years, now deceased, for months before the smell of his body became too much.
The smell had become so overwhelming Golem stuffed towels along the door jamb, stopping it from permeating into the rest of the home.
Despite this, the court was told Ms Nemes thought the smell was toxins leaving the body, a side-effect of herbal remedies.
Mr Nemes’s upper body mummified to such an extent his face was no longer identifiable.
The retired businessman’s bottom half had decomposed into the mattress beneath him, his body infested with bugs and surrounded by animal droppings.
The bones in his right hand were exposed.
The court was told Mr Nemes and his wife, both Jehovah’s Witnesses, opposed western medicine despite the man’s numerous illnesses including diabetes.
He then took a serious fall in 2021, becoming bedbound and reliant on his wife and stepson for care.
Crown prosecutor Stephanie Gallagher said, while Mr Nemes was fed and given pain relief, his medical needs were ignored with no support from doctors and severe gaping bed sores and likely sepsis at the end of his life.
While his cause of death was unknown, Ms Gallagher said Golem’s actions hastened the death of an already ailing man, adding Golem then chose to hide the death from his “mentally fragile” mother.
A series of photos taken by Golem, tendered to the court, showed the severity of the bed sores; Ms Gallagher submitting the photos also showed Golem was aware of the risk of death but did nothing.
Ms Gallagher also noted Golem had confiscated Mr Nemes’ phone some time before his death as he believed his stepfather was spending family money on poor financial investments.
Daughters fight for father uncovers tragedy
The court was told Mr Nemes was only found thanks to his daughter from a previous marriage, Suzanna Beljanksi, who lived out of state and had limited contact with him in the years leading up to his death.
Ms Beljanski advised she last talked to her father in 2019, telling the court their connection seemed to “cause problems for him at home”.
Alarms bells rang for Ms Beljanski and her sister Elizabeth Marzano when they discovered none of Mr Nemes’ friends or family had heard from him in months.
On a family holiday to the Gold Coast, Ms Beljanski demanded to see her father and, when she was denied access to the home by Golem and Ms Nemes, she searched hospitals, called police and pleaded for them to complete a welfare check.
Four days later, after being told by police she “had her answer and should leave”, she successfully begged an officer to climb over the fence and find her father.
“I came closer to saving my father than the people who lived a wall away from him,” Ms Beljanski said in a statement to the court.
“There is no word in English or in my father’s own language about what it is to have your dad hidden in his bed for 14 months while you search for him,” Ms Beljanski said.
“I’ve never lived anything like it and I’ve never been the same since.
“His daughters were kept away from him, he had no voice of his own left and the voices around him were used to keep the outside world out.
“He lost his safety in his own home, he lost his dignity.
“It was a long and degrading loss of everything that makes someone human, inside a house with two other adults, living, eating, sleeping.
Ms Marzano said she was “haunted” by her father’s treatment.
“When I think of my father today, the first image that comes to mind is no longer the wonderful life that he lived but the way he died,” she told the court.
“It intrudes into everyday moments when I least expect them.”
Lawyer says client’s actions “inexplicable”
Barrister Martin Longhurst said Golem suffered mental incapacities, with a low IQ after being run over by a lawnmower when he was just a small child.
Golem was wheeled into the courtroom in a wheelchair, wearing a padded helmet due to a piece of his skull being removed when a shunt was inserted into his brain before his arrest.
Mr Longhurst said Golem also suffered seizures as a side effect of the shunt.
He told the court the manslaughter was “not a case of animosity” nor was there any allegations Golem benefited from Mr Nemes’ death.
He stated the mentally incapacitated Golem was trying to fulfil his stepfather’s wishes in avoiding western medicine, but was torn in trying to appease his mother’s concerns – leading to him lying about the medical care Mr Nemes received.
Mr Longhurst conceded Golem’s actions after Mr Nemes’ death were “markedly inexplicable” and loomed “very uneasy”.
The court heard Golem told a psychologist he was concerned he would get in trouble if he told people his stepfather had died, so continued to lie and care for him as if he were alive.
The legacy and life of Tomislav Nemes
Mr Nemes’ daughters described their father as a hardworking, caring and devoted family man.
“If we had only known the truth we would’ve moved heaven and earth,” Ms Marzano told the court.
“Dad was not forgotten.”
The women told the court Mr Nemes immigrated to Australia from the former Yugoslavia, in the area now Croatia, when he was a young boy with almost nothing to his name.
According to his family, he became a successful businessman, always making sure to help fellow new migrants in Australia.
“He understood how difficult it was to start over in a new country,” Ms Marzano said.
“Even today, decades later, people still approach our family and tell us their lives in Australia began because dad gave them a chance.
“Helping others was simply part of who he was.”
Music enveloped the family home, with each daughter describing treasured memories of their father singing Elvis Presley and Yugoslavian folk songs when they were children.
“I never got the opportunity to sing to him one last time as he sung to me throughout my childhood,” Ms Marzano said.
The court heard Mr Nemes acted as Golem’s father figure and friend for near to 30 years.
His daughters said Mr Nemes took on Golem as his own, carrying him up stairs and pushing his wheelchair anytime it was needed.
“He trusted that Nik needed his help and he gave that without hesitation,” Ms Marzano said.
Released into the community
Justice Rebecca Treston said Golem’s actions, particular after Mr Nemes untimely death, were “truly difficult to understand”.
“No evidence suggest that what you were doing was wrong,” she said.
“He was helpless to obtain his own help.
“He was quite simply left to rot.”
She ordered Golem serve nine years imprisonment, to be released on parole on August 21, 2026.
A period of two years and 11 months served in pre-sentence custody, will count towards his sentence.