A 35-year-old former soldier has been charged with murder over an alleged attack and the death of another man, in a Canberra pub last week.
Police understand Kerry Kourpanidis was dining at the Kingston Hotel on 5 July with his partner, six-year-old daughter and another friend. Also at the pub at the time was Warren Hordpenko, 44.
A drunk Horkpenko had been seen parading around the bar wearing the pool table triangle as a hat, and after persistently bothering another group, had been cut off from the bar about an hour prior to the fatal incident.
According to documents tendered to ACT Magistrate’s Court, Kourpanidis left the pub, taking his daughter home, before returning to confront the other man.
Going straight to the pool room, he accused Hordpenko of an offense, yelling “You f***ed with my daughter, c***” before tackling him off a stool to the ground, where he reportedly punched the man six or seven times to the head.
Two other men left the area, fearing they would also be attacked, and Hordpenko was found unconscious a short time later.
Police were called to reports of a disturbance about 9:15pm, arriving to find paramedics already working on the victim, who was shortly pronounced dead at the scene soon.
Police took many statements from patrons and staff present, and combed CCTV to identify the assailant.
“The incident occurred in the pool room. There is no coverage of CCTV in that particular place, however the hotel has numerous other CCTV cameras,” reported Detective Matt Reynolds.
“There is no previous relationship that we’re aware of between the two men.”
As a course of the investigation, Kourpanidis was observed by police during the week return to the hotel but stay in a car outside while a friend went in. A tapped phone call is alleged to have recorded him tell someone of his good fortune there were no cameras in the pool room area.
“There’s no CCTV. It’s a, it’s a, it’s a big relief.”
On Thursday he was arrested by police, walking to his lawyer’s office, and charged with murder.
On Friday he appeared in Court, where his defence argued for bail, suggesting the offence did not justify the charge.
Magistrate Lorraine Walker did not agree, remanding him in custody ahead of reappearance 28 July.
