Jaidyn Raymond Leskie
April 30, 1996 – June 14, 1997
Find A Grave Memorial

It was June 14, 1997 when Bilynda left her son with Greg to go out with her sister. Greg was an unemployed mechanic who had baby sat Jaidyn several times before. Bilynda dressed Jaidyn in a tracksuit outfit and a red jacket. In a shopping bag, she put some diapers, extra clothing, a bottle, an apple, a Muesli bar and a lollipop. Greg and Jaidyn arrived at Greg's house at around 2:00pm. It was reported that after that, no one saw Jaidyn alive, though it was also reported that Meone heard him during a telephone conversation.

Bilynda called later to ask Greg to bring Jaidyn home, she called at least 20 times and there was no answer. It was about 8:00pm and she decided rather than go to pick up her son, she'd go to a party with her sister Katie and then later they went to Ryan's hotel.

Around 2:00am, Greg drove to get her, she was drunk. Greg started lying immediately telling her that Jaidyn was in the hospital because he had burned himself. At about 3:00am, Bilynda went to Greg's house to get Jaidyn, he wasn't there. There were broken windows and on the font lawn was the head of a pig. It would turn out that an old
girlfriend of Greg's and some of her friends had thrown the pigs head there. The incident had nothing to do with Jaidyn's disappearance, though later it would be said that the calling card of the pigs head  thrown on the lawn at the precise time was the greatest coincidence in the history of criminal trials. The coroner, Graeme Johnstone said:

At around 3:30am, Greg was stopped by police and questioned, he made no mention to them of Jaidyn having gone missing. Greg went back to Bilynda's house at about 5:00am and admitted that Jaidyn was not in the hospital, that he was in fact missing. At 5:18am on june 15, 1997, they walked into the police station and reported Jaidyn as missing. Days later, Greg was interviewed by police who had found bloodied tissues in the garbage at this home. DNA tests had shown the blood belonged to Jaidyn. Greg said that Jaidyn had hurt himself in the backyard and he had used the tissues to clean the blood off of him. In his bedroom police had found $50. and $100. bills that had been hidden and were wet. In Greg's car they found a soaking wet wallet and jacket.

On New Years Day of 1998, Jaidyn's body floated up to the top of the water in the lake, East of Willowgrove, along with a sleeping bag. It is said that Jaidyn's body remained under the water until the stitches in the sleeping bag had split open. Jaidyn was found to have a two breaks in his left arm. Police believe that Greg gave Jaidyn the antitremor medication to keep him quiet and then got angry and threw him against a wall or killed to hide the injuries. They believe that he then took Jaidyn to the lake and waded out as far as he could to be sure that his body would sink.

Years later, in 2006, Bilynda would say that in the beginning she had refused to see what Greg had done to her son:

Bilynda has five children now, including twin girls. She doesn't live in Moe any longer and says she is just starting to move on:

In 2006, an inquest into the death of Jaidyn found that Greg HAD contributed to his death and then disposed of his body. Double Jeopardy laws made it impossible to prosecute him with the new evidence. Bilynda joined a coalition asking for laws to be reformed. Ten years after his death, a kit containing information intended to help parents choose the right baby sitter was released in memory of Jaidyn.

A coroner released his 101 page findings in the case of Jaidyn in 2006 and Graeme Johnstone said that Greg HAD contributed to the death of Jaidyn:

Graeme said that it was likely that Jaidyn died at the home of Greg, of head injuries, though he could not be clear of how he had come to be injured. Graeme continued, saying that Greg then disposed of Jaidyn's body near the dam. His conclusion was reached, with comfort, based partly on the fact that Greg had given false explanations to Bilynda and the fact that his wallet and his money were wet, this caused the coroner to conclude that he had entered the lake in order to dispose of Jaidyn's little body.

Michael Rafter, Greg's lawyers, stated that his client could challenge the finding in the Supreme Court because the finding was in conflict with the evidence and was causing Greg to get a bad reputation. Michael had already taken issue with a proposed change in the laws of double jeopardy. The laws of double jeopardy are about 800 years old and are supposed to protect people from being tried for a crime, more than once. Michael feared that legislation introduced to change the laws, would subject Greg to more witch hunts:

Here is a timeline of events surrounding Jaidyn's death:

June 1997: Victorian toddler Jaidyn Leskie, aged 14 months, vanishes in Moe while in the care of his mother's boyfriend, Greg Domaszewicz. 

July 1997: Domaszewicz is charged with Jaidyn's murder. 

January 1998: Jaidyn's decomposed body is found at the bottom of Blue Rock Dam in Victoria's Latrobe Valley. About 400 mourners attend his funeral at the Moe Baptist Church. 

March 1998: Domaszewicz is committed to stand trial for Jaidyn's murder. 

December 1998: Domaszewicz is acquitted. 

February 1999: Jaidyn's mother, Bilynda Williams, is granted a two-year intervention order against Domaszewicz. She admits she believes Domaszewicz killed her son. 

June 2002: Deputy state coroner Iain West lays no blame for Jaidyn's death. 

November 2003: Coroner Graeme Johnstone opens a public inquest into Jaidyn's death. 

June 2004: Inquest adjourned indefinitely while lawyers for Domaszewicz issue proceedings in the Victorian Supreme Court to have the inquest abandoned. 

December 2004: Supreme Court Justice David Ashley rules Johnstone exceeded his jurisdiction in deciding to hold an inquest. 

July 2005: Johnstone opens a new inquest. 

September 2005: Domaszewicz is excused from giving evidence at the inquest on the grounds that it would affect his mental health. 

September 2006: The coroner postpones announcing the findings of the inquest to allow Domaszewicz's lawyers to consider applying to the Supreme Court to permanently stop the finding from being handed down. The planned action is abandoned. 

October 2006: Johnstone finds that Domaszewicz contributed to the boy's death and threw his body in a dam. 

Mr Colin Lovitt QC, defended Greg in court. He admitted that his client was a "stupid practical joker who had a tendency to say silly things", he said though, that he was defending him for murder, not for being an idiot. While Colin Lovitt admitted that Greg was not suitable to take proper care of Jaidyn, he said that his character should NOT be a deciding factor in the verdict. He cited many points of the case when trying to create reasonable doubt. My own thoughts on these "facts" will be in parenthesis and italicized.

1. There was no direct evidence that Domaszewicz had in fact committed murder or manslaughter. (There was also no evidence that he didn't. He was the last one to see  Jaidyn alive, Jaidyn's blood was in his trash can, he also LIED about where Jaidyn was when he picked up his mother)

2. The pathologist for the prosecution could not rule out death by epileptic seizure or asthma. (Did Jaidyn have a history of either of these things, if so, I have not read about it up to this point)

3. The local police were characterized as prejudiced against Domaszewicz from the start. (Of course they were LOL aren't they always?)

4. Domaszewicz had been relentlessly interviewed, but the houses of the "pig’s head team" were never rearched. 
(The pig head incident didn't appear to have anything to do with the case, it was just bad timing on the part of an ex-girlfriend)

5. There was barely enough time for Domaszewicz to dispose of the body at the dam and conceal the crime. 
(How could anyone THINK let alone say this out loud? Greg had from 2:00pm on the 14th of June until 3:00am on the 15th of June to kill Jaidyn and dispose of his body.)

6. The police had too easily neglected the possibility that the "pig’s head team" were involved in the boys disappearance (as Lovitt commented with some understatement, "we are dealing with unusual people here"). 
(As it was said, this just seems to be bad timing. There was NO evidence to suggest anything other than that)

7. Jaidyn's blood was not found in Domaszewicz’s car. (Of course not, it was all on the tissues in the trash and he was put in the car inside of a sleeping bag)

8. There was a serious question as to the ownership of the crowbar found with the body, perhaps identified in a police photograph as being in Domaszewicz’s backyard the day after the disappearance. (I have yet to read anything about a crowbar, breaking a childs arm, killing them and throwing them in the lake can be done without a crow bar AND, let's not forget, people can own more than one crow bar)

9. The mother of the boy was at times supportive of the defence’s case. (She believed him at first, there was nothing to tell her that his man had killed her son. She got wise later and KNEW he did it)

10. Lovitt characterized the "calling card" of the pig’s head, at precisely the time Jaidyn went missing, as "the greatest coincidence in the history of criminal trials". (And he was right)

11. Lovitt asserted, whilst cross-examining "Tubby" Hopkinson, that he had been seen in another town in the company of a toddler (strenuously disputed by the prosecution). (There is more than one toddler in the world)

12. Domaszewicz, who did not give evidence in the trial, was interviewed for ten hours. Through thousands of questions he did not admit to the crime, though he certainly gave contradictory and rambling responses. 
(He lied, he lied, he lied! People lie to cover up the truth...PERIOD!)
 

Bilynda had been seen as the mother who was out getting drunk while the baby sitter killed her son. She was informed that a the coroner was going to criticize her for not acting in a a more responsible way towards her son. She commented on that, saying: "It saddens me that Jaidyn's killer not only gets away with murder, but the blame is faced my way. The truth is I didn't go out that night and expect my son to be murdered when I got home. that was not in the instructions I gave when I left Jaidyn that night"  On October 4, 2006, a short proceeding was held. Elizabeth Leskie, Jaidyn's grandmother was there. She left the courtroom and in a sad voice said that though she believed Greg had killed Jaidyn, she had never believed it was intentional. She said she hoped that this would be the end of things and that she had found closure with the coroners findings:

When asked if she though Greg should give up rather than take further court action, she laughed and said:

Elizabeth said her son, Brett, who is Jaidyn's father was very angry about what had happened and he has not been able to go on with his life. She said that her son would have liked for the coroner to say that Greg had in fact killed Jaidyn.

Greg was placed on disability pension after he was diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome, after the trial in 1998. He is living on a farm.

After Jaidyn's body was discovered, a small plaque was put up at the dam, near the spot where his body was found, it reads:

A  man who had been reporting on the story for the Herald-Sun, Michael Gleeson, wrote a book titled "The Jaidyn Leskie Murder".  Michael said he felt he had an understanding of the case that had put him in the position to write the book. He wanted to try and put all of the pieces of information together and untangle the mess that had
become the case:

Michael said his book is not an easy read. He says that his book is disturbing, illumination and compelling while at the same time it will repel you. The book taps into the fascination the public has with crime and the desire to know something about the dark side of human nature:

You can read more on this story, here: 
Jaidyn Leskie on CrimeLibrary.com

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