A man has walked free from custody after admitting he hid a woman’s body down a mineshaft.
Brendon Prestage, 33, spent more than two and a half years behind bars before he was sentenced, pleading guilty to assisting an offender.
Kobie Parfitt, a mother and grandmother, was last seen at her home on Hickman Street, Ballarat, in April 2020.
Before she vanished she told people she was scared for her life.
Shannon Jeffrey pleaded guilty to manslaughter, admitting she killed the 43-year-old.
Prestage wasn’t there when Parfitt died but he helped wrap her body in plastic. Then she was loaded into his Ford Territory, which police never found.
The court heard Prestage and Jeffrey drove 30 kilometres from Ballarat to Snake Valley, where Parfitt’s body was hidden in a mineshaft.
Surrounded by thick bush, it was covered with towels and bedding.
For months Parfitt’s loved ones believed she was missing, pleading for help alongside investigators from the missing person’s squad.
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It was eight months after her death that police finally found her body, detectives had been searching unmarked trails at Snake Valley. They’d followed Prestage’s phone data, which showed he’d been in the area when Parfitt disappeared.
The time her body spent in the mineshaft meant police couldn’t prove her cause of death.
The court heard Prestage’s action severely impacted the investigation and Parfitt’s family.
But the judge noted he was remorseful and had strong prospects of rehabilitation after working with drug counsellors in jail.
He made reference to Prestage’s partner, impressed by her evidence and convinced she would help him stay clean.
Inside the courtroom Parfitt’s family was in tears as Prestage’s sentence was handed down.
The judge sentenced him to two years and three months behind bars, less time than the time he’d already spent in custody.
Hours later he walked onto the street and into a waiting car, driven home by his partner to Ballarat, where he’ll live with her and her children.
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