Home-invasion tale over cold case murder 'implausible'

A taxi driver lied at a previous murder trial by claiming a German national found bludgeoned to death in his own unit in 2008 was killed by home invaders, a jury has been told. Naji Fakhreddine, 69, is facing a retrial before a jury over the alleged murder of Bernd Lehmann in his apartment in the inner-west Sydney suburb of Ashfield on around February 12, 2008. The 66-year-old carer was murdered the day he was due to fly back to Germany to look after his elderly mother, crown prosecutor Sally Traynor told the NSW Supreme Court on Monday. Ms Traynor said the taxi driver met Mr Lehmann at a nearby leagues club and went back to his home, where the German man performed oral sex on him before the violent attack. A friend contacted by worried family members in Germany on Valentine's Day ventured to the Ashfield unit to find Mr Lehmann's neatly dressed but bloodied body lying face down in his kitchen doorway. The carer was carrying a money bag containing 1700 euro. The alleged murder weapon, a 2.7kg statuette with its head detached, was found lying covered in blood next to Mr Lehmann's body. A large, 17cm cut had been made to the back of his neck and white flecks of plastic were found inside the 5cm-deep wound, the jury heard. In September 2020, familial DNA taken from Fakhreddine's son matched him to swabs taken at Mr Lehmann's unit by officers 12 years earlier, Ms Traynor said. DNA from the statuette and semen found in Mr Lehmann's mouth during an autopsy was matched with Fakhreddine, the jury heard. He was arrested in March 2021 but has always denied having anything to do with the murder. Ms Traynor said evidence given by Fakhreddine at an earlier criminal trial amounted to lies about his involvement in the crime. His account of a home invasion was false and "implausible", she told the jury. But defence counsel Jennifer Layani Ellis said her client was an innocent man. "I am not killing people, I am not that guy," the jury heard he previously told police Fakhreddine had been in a difficult situation because if he called police, he would have been found in a unit with a dead body and his sexual activities outed to the community and his wife, Ms Layani Ellis said. But if he stayed silent, that would have been taken by police to indicate his guilt, she added. "Doomed if he did, doomed if he did not," Ms Layani Ellis said. The trial before Justice Julia Lonergan continues. Lifeline 13 11 14 Fullstop Australia 1800 385 578