A teenage boy charged over the murder of Geelong dad Paul Grapsas had been spared jail by a Victorian magistrate just months earlier.
Mr Grapsas, 40, took his dog for a late-night walk from his home in central Geelong, south-west of Melbourne, in September 2023, but never returned.
Bailey Clifford, 20, from Belmont in Geelong, appeared in the Supreme Court of Victoria on Monday where he pleaded guilty to Mr Grapsas’s manslaughter.
The knife-wielding thug had avoided a murder trial after being offered a plea deal by Victorian Director of the Office of Public Prosecutions Brendan Kissane, KC.
He also pleaded guilty to two counts of theft between September 14 and 15, 2023.
The deal was made despite the court hearing Mr Grapsas, a business analyst, died from seven stab wounds, with the fatal blow being one of three stabs to his back.
The decision was slammed by Mr Grapsas’s heartbroken widow Jessica who choked back tears in court.
His wife – who was pregnant at the time – had found his body in the street near her home after she went out to search for him when their dog returned without him.
Bailey Clifford, 20, of Belmont was originally charged with murder. He had stabbed his victim seven times, including three in the back which proved fatal
Paul Grapsas (pictured left) was found with a fatal wound on a street near his Geelong home
On Monday, Mrs Grapsas slammed the plea deal that saw her husband’s killer escape what could have been a life sentence for murder.
‘I have agonised over the journey of the justice system,’ she said.
‘I’ve felt betrayal as the system allows, and the tactics that can be used, to the benefit of the accused.
‘I felt pressured by the system to succumb to the wishes of the criminal. For the risk of finding no justice for Paul at all.
‘I felt anger and the second chances and consideration of the behaviour of Bailey Clifford over the course of his life to lead to this decision.
‘This has been one of the most traumatic experiences next to losing Paul.’
Ms Grapsas said the last week leading up to Monday’s plea hearing had tormented her further.
‘I am broken,’ she said. ‘I’ve lost my faith and trust in justice when decisions can be made about your future without all of the information about you at hand,’ she said.
‘Yet you have stabbed and killed my future and that of my children. Where is Paul’s fair trial?’
Bailey Clifford is a convicted, violent thug who ought not have been free when his alleged victim was killed
Ms Graspas was killed near the intersection of Mercer and Malone streets, near where St Peter’s and St Paul’s Catholic Church is located (pictured)
Mr Graspas’ family members filled the courtroom on Monday as his widow stared down Clifford to deliver a heartbreaking message in her victim impact statement.
‘Paul had the privilege of loving his precious little girls for only two and four years,’ she told Clifford.
‘My innocent, bright, hopeful children have had their father robbed from them.
‘My girls will be fortunate to remember him, to have one memory of his voice or time that they cherished together. All we have is photographs and stories.
‘They are not old enough to hold one memory for themselves when they grow up.’
Clifford’s guilty pleas and his age are set to secure him a significant discount on his sentence.
Daily Mail Australia can now reveal Clifford’s atrocious criminal behaviour leading up to the crime for the first time.
Clifford had avoided jail in June 2023 despite being convicted over crimes related to a three-month rampage, which saw him threaten a victim at knifepoint.
Paul Grapsas , 40, left his Western Beach Road home near central Geelong in Victoria to take his dog for a walk. He never made it home
Magistrate Ann McGarvie spared Clifford an immediate prison sentence, telling him she hoped he used the ‘leniency’ as a second chance at life, the Geelong Advertiser reported then.
‘This can be a blip in your life that you may look back on and say going to prison for six days was a good thing,’ she said.
Clifford sobbed as he appeared in court then via video link from the Melbourne Remand Centre and pledged to go straight.
‘I am going to turn my life around from this point,’ he insisted.
Clifford spent a week behind bars over the rampage before being released on a 12-month community corrections order which he was still serving when he killed his innocent victim.
Mr Grapsas’s battered body was discovered lying next to his car outside a church in nearby Malone Street, not far from his home.
The court heard Mr Grapsas had found Clifford robbing his car when he intervened.
Clifford later suggested he had killed the kind-hearted church goer in self defence, telling police Mr Grapsis told him he was ‘going to kill him’ before throwing punches at him.
Paul Graspas and his wife Jessica (pictured on their wedding day) were about to welcome their third child and celebrate their seventh wedding anniversary when he was killed
Word of Clifford’s past offending had been splashed across social media at the time, with angry Victorians lashing out at the state’s justice system.
‘A preventable loss that a family shouldn’t have to and probably will never come to terms with I think,’ one person posted.
‘He should never have been on the street. It has taken an innocent family man to lose his life. Let’s hope our disgraceful justice system does the right thing,’ another wrote.
Clifford had been arrested over a break-in at Cotton On’s North Geelong headquarters centre on May 31 that year.
Clifford and a mate were caught with trolleys loaded with items, including computers, when they were spotted by a staff member arriving for work at 5.45am.
In another incident, he pointed a knife at his victim before being tackled to the ground after he was found rummaging through a vehicle in the early hours of April 24.
A search upon his arrest revealed a number of stolen personal cards from unknown people, sunglasses, radios and a necklace.
A month earlier, he was busted stealing a swag of items, including an e-bike, two radios, a set of hedge clippers, a Canon camera and sunglasses.
Bailey Clifford ought not have been free in the community to kill, but a plea deal will insure justice is never truly served
Clifford pleaded guilty to the charges, with his lawyer Stephanie Mawby telling the court it had been an ‘eye opener’ for her client.
‘He hates himself for his behaviour and he feels like he has taken everything for granted,’ she said at the time.
His barrister Moya O’Brien claimed Clifford’s remorse was ‘true’ and he ought earn a significant ‘discount’ on his sentence for offering to plead guilty to manslaughter in August last year.
In defending her client, Ms O’Brien upset members of Mr Graspas’s family when she suggested it could not be proven Clifford had been armed with a knife before attacking his victim.
Clifford will be sentenced over Mr Grapsis’s death at a date to be fixed. The plea hearing continues.
It comes after wannabe hip-hop artist Spencer Shumski was last month sentenced in the same court to six years in jail with a non-parole period of just three years after a jury found him not guilty of murder, but the lesser charge of manslaughter.
He had stabbed to death Clint Allen in the early hours of May 8, 2023 in front of his own wife during her birthday celebrations.
With time already served, the 22-year old could walk free from jail in May next year.
