[Source: AAP News]
Dozens of people have rallied to remember a 19-year-old woman whose body was found in a rubbish dump, amid calls for the government to intervene after charges were dropped against her alleged killer.
Isla Bell’s body was located at a Dandenong tip in Melbourne’s southeast in November 2024, six weeks after she was reported missing by her family.
Police originally charged Marat Ganiev, 55, with her murder, claiming he killed the teen in the early hours of October 7, 2024, before hiding her body in a fridge.
Isla Bell [Source: AAP News]
The charge was downgraded to manslaughter as the case entered the Victorian Supreme Court, but prosecutors withdrew that offence on Tuesday, citing insufficient evidence.
Ganiev has instead been charged with attempting to pervert the course of justice, with a new trial date yet to be set.
A large crowd gathered for Ms Bell’s vigil near Melbourne’s State Library on Saturday.
Victorian Greens MP Anasina Gray-Barberio said the community was calling on state Attorney-General Sonya Kilkenny to intervene in the case.
“Absolutely heartbreaking, the sorrow and grief that these families continue to bear at the hands of a legal system that refuses to centre the experiences of victims and survivors and their families,” she said in a social media post after the rally.
The Victorian government must reform the broken legal system that does not protect women and children, she said.
“Enough is enough,” she said.
Ms Bell’s mother, Justine Spokes, took to social media on Thursday to call on the community to hold a peaceful rally in honour of her daughter.
“Isla never got her vigil,” she said in a video posted to Instagram.
“I really want to welcome people into this space with no judgments in their mind.
“It’s not about thoughts. It’s just about arriving in that space with an open heart.”
Rally-goers were encouraged to wear orange, a colour associated with activism to prevent and eliminate violence against women and girls.
Ms. Spokes urged people to remain peaceful, saying she had spent the past few years being angry and rallying.
“I’m tired – I’m so tired,” she said in the video.
“And that anger, I know it catalyses change, but underneath all that anger is just so much sadness and grief.”
A second man charged in relation to Ms Bell’s death had his case discontinued on Tuesday.
Eyal Yaffe, 59, was originally accused of assisting an offender and attempting to pervert the course of justice, but prosecutors withdrew the two charges, and he walked free from court.
