Alleged rapist Nektario Zafiratos asks for bail – The Greek Herald

Nektario Zafiratos, a 51-year-old Melbourne man accused of rape and fraud, has asked for bail so he can bring his elderly mother to Australia from Greece.

On Wednesday 12 June, Zafiratos appeared in the Victoria District Court via video link from prison, where he had been remanded in custody awaiting trial for more than 400 days.

Zafiratos’s defense attorney told the court that his client wanted bail because his 74-year-old mother suffers from advanced dementia and he is “struggling with his mental health as a result of his incarceration.”

The lawyer explained that Zafiratos had arranged short-term accommodation for his mother in Australia through a friend he met in prison.

The court heard that the plan was for Zafiratos’s prison boyfriend to fly to Greece and help his mother – who has never met said boyfriend – and her bridal shop pack up. The couple would return to Melbourne, Australia, where their son would look after the 74-year-old and help her open a new business here.

Judge David Sexton questioned the plan and the viability of an elderly woman with cognitive impairments “being able to fly anywhere, let alone from Athens to Melbourne”. Refusing bail, the judge said the charges against Zafiratos were “very serious”.

The 51-year-old was arrested in April 2023 and charged with 24 counts, but prosecutors dropped five of those charges at the start of a preliminary investigation in the Melbourne Magistrates Court on November 27, 2023.

The court’s indictment states that the self-proclaimed “serial fraudster” is accused of ten counts of rape, four counts of sexual contact without consent and five counts of forcing sexual acts by deception.

Nine of the allegations date back to 2021, the remaining ten allegedly from 2023.

Zafiratos will return to court for a hearing later this month.

Source: The Herald Sun.