Killer spoke of Vic murder, lawyer says

Serial killer Peter Dupas spoke of killing a 95-year-old Melbourne woman in her bed, saying he left no forensic evidence with the "old sheila", former lawyer Andrew Fraser claims.

Police believe Dupas murdered Kathleen Downes with a knife as she slept at a Brunswick nursing home in December 1997, but the case has never been solved.

Mr Fraser, a former lawyer and convicted drug trafficker, told a Victorian Coroners Court inquest into her death that Dupas spoke of the murder while they were prison inmates.

Mr Fraser said Dupas once told him, "I reckon I'm going to end up wearing the old sheila Downes, too."

He claims Dupas mentioned Ms Downes on two other occasions, saying, "I left no forensics in Fawkner nor with the old sheila down the road."

Dupas' barrister, John Desmond, accused Mr Fraser of fabricating his story to secure an early release from prison and a financial reward.

"It's all a lie what you say, out of your own self-interest," Mr Desmond said.

He asked why Mr Fraser had not made a note of his conversations with Dupas in a notebook he kept in prison.

"I wouldn't have made it out the door," Mr Fraser replied.

Dupas is serving life without parole for killing Mersina Halvagis in Fawkner Cemetery in 1997 and of the mutilation murders of Margaret Maher in October 1997 and Nicole Patterson in April 1999.

Mr Fraser said he befriended Dupas while they were inmates and prison gardeners in Port Phillip Prison and Fulham Correctional Centre between 2001 and 2006.

But he described him as "probably the most dangerous and unpredictable person I have ever met".

Ms Downes was found in her room with her throat cut and three stab wounds to her neck on the morning of December 31, 1997.

The killer used bolt cutters to enter through the nursing home's kitchen window and escaped out a fire exit.

Police believe Dupas might have attacked Ms Downes out of resentment towards his mother, who he had visited shortly before Ms Downes' death.

Mr Fraser helped convict Dupas on Ms Halvagis' murder by giving a crucial testimony that he made incriminating statements to him over Ms Halvagis' stabbing death.

His testimony helped secure him an early release from prison and a financial reward.

The inquest continues.