Muhammad Abdur Rehman Mirza: Man who murdered Helen Marsukin sex tryst sentenced to life with 20-year minimum

A man who killed a young mum and left her on a bathroom floor for days as he entertained another woman — then dumped her body in a South Fremantle harbour — has been jailed for life. Muhammad Abdur Rehman Mirza told multiple elaborate lies in a bid to escape justice for murdering Helen Marsuk, 25, in December 2022, but was unanimously found guilty by a Supreme Court of WA jury in September. The then 21-year-old had been left alone in his family’s Gosnells unit. He used Telegram to arrange a late night drugs-for-sex tryst with his victim, an Ethopian refugee. She became suspicious when he said he’d only hand over the methamphetamine he’d promised after they had intercourse, and according to Mirza, now 24, she became verbally abusive. He stabbed her 12 times, first inflicting a chest wound so deep, it approached her back ribs. When she tried to flee, he stabbed her from behind and closed the front door to trap her inside. “When she did not acquiesce, you became enraged,” Justice Amanda Forrester said. “The violence you inflicted upon her was sustained and brutal.” He even entertained another woman in the unit while Ms Marsuk’s body lay on the bathroom floor for days — repeatedly urging the visitor to stay the night and using air freshener to cover up the smell. Mirza called in sick for his work as a Harvey Norman salesman, bought products from Bunnings in a bid to clean the unit — leaving behind blood at the entrance — and burnt and threw out evidence. Justice Forrester said Mirza had left Ms Marsuk’s six-year-old son with the knowledge of the violent way his mother died and the callous, disrespectful manner with which he treated her remains, depriving her of dignity. Mirza initially told police that the killer was a drug dealer with a “bogan beard” and nose piercings who had come to deliver the meth to the unit. But in his second interview, he admitting he was lying and claimed self-defence. Justice Forrester said the killer had been found to have shown narcissistic, Machiavellian, sadistic and psychopathic traits, and his crime was brutal and abhorrent. He was at risk of future violent and sexual offending, and had possibly become enraged by the victim’s “challenge” to his “masculine dominance”. He had thrown cats off buildings in Pakistan, a patriarchal society where he was born and raised, in order to feel power and dominance, she said. Justice Forrester said sentences for violence against women had firmed up and perpetrators needed to know that the consequences would be significant. Mirza will be eligible for parole after serving 20 years. 1800RESPECT