Eyal Yaffe: Man accused of hiding Isla Bell’s body after alleged murder granted bail

A man accused of helping cover up Isla Bell’s violent death by relocating her body and disposing of evidence has been granted bail. Eyal Yaffe, 57, is accused of taking steps over the course of a month to conceal the 19-year-old’s alleged killer’s involvement. He returned to the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court on Monday afternoon as magistrate Rohan Lawrence said while the alleged actions were callous and repugnant, Mr Yaffe should be released. “In my view the prosecution have not established Mr Yaffe is an unacceptable risk,” he said. “Accordingly I will grant bail.” Members of Ms Bell’s family were present in court for the judgment with one woman sobbing throughout the hearing. Ms Bell was reported missing by her family on October 10 and her remains were uncovered at a waste depot in Dandenong, in Melbourne’s southeast, on November 19. Later the same day Mr Yaffe was arrested and charged with assist offender (murder), while his friend Marat Ganiev, 53, was charged with murder. The court was told he has tickets for a trip to Bulgaria the following day. Mr Yaffe launched his bid for bail on Friday as his barrister Ian Hill KC said the former jeweller could live with his son, Ziv Yaffe, and be electronically monitored. He told the court there were “real triable issues” in the case about whether the accused man knew Ms Bell’s body was in the fridge and that she’d been murdered. “The facts are clear, there’s no direct evidence and we say no evidence from which it can be inferred,” he said. The court was told under Victorian law Mr Yaffe has a prima facie entitlement to bail unless the court was swayed that he poses an unacceptable risk. Police allege Mr Yaffe became involved after receiving a call from Mr Ganiev on November 8 — a day after Ms Bell is said to have been killed. The following day he allegedly drove to Mr Ganiev’s St Kilda East apartment and dropped off a new black fridge, returning on October 17 to remove the old one wrapped in plastic. Police allege Ms Bell’s remains were inside the fridge. Over the following days the trailer was allegedly moved to three locations around Melbourne allegedly associated with Mr Yaffe, with one person later telling police it had a “foul smell” and was attracting flies. Detective Senior Constable Benjamin Curran told the court it was the police case Mr Yaffe knew the fridge contained her body and that she had been killed. “At the time it had been 10 days since she had died … It’s not a smell that can be mistaken or forgotten,” he said. Police allege Ms Bell had been staying at Mr Ganiev’s apartment since a chance meeting on November 5. Her last known contact, it is alleged, was with a friend through Snapchat about 12am on November 7, where she said she’d met the “best Russian sugar daddy” and he was “lavishing her with gifts”. It’s alleged her death at the hands of Mr Ganiev was caught on CCTV less than an hour later. “Investigators observed what appears to be Bell’s head whipping around as if she has been struck,” Constable Curran told the court on Friday. “She falls to the ground and Ganiev can then be seen striking her on the ground of the kitchen.” Bail was opposed by prosecutors who alleged the Israel-born Australian citizen is a flight risk and has access to “significant unexplained wealth”. Prosecutor Daniel White argued that Mr Yaffe posed an unacceptable risk of interfering with witnesses, breaching bail conditions and endangering community safety. “It is alleged by police that the applicant engaged in a series of acts with the purpose of impeding the apprehension, prosecution or punishment of the man accused of committing that murder … over the better part of a month,” he said. They pointed to Mr Yaffe’s extensive criminal history and that he was allegedly found with $150,000 and other persons identity documents. The court was told the maximum penalty for the charge of assist offender is 20 years jail, but this drops down to five years if the primary offender is found guilty of any charge other than murder. Mr Yaffe will be released on Monday afternoon with an ankle monitor, under a series of conditions including not leaving Melbourne, following a curfew and reporting to police, and not contacting witnesses. Mr Ganiev has been remanded in custody ahead of his next court date in March next year.