Peter Shellard

**Peter William Shellard** (March 22, 1949 - May 5, 2005) was a 56-year-old, Australian self-made millionaire. He was murdered by his girlfriend, Shirley Withers.

## Background

Peter Shellard was a 56 year old self-made millionaire. He lived in a luxury North Caulfield mansion worth about $6 million at the time. He was the type of person that everybody had a story about. He was described as a bit of an odd ball, a little bit out there, many referred to him as the eccentric millionaire. He wasthe director of several companies and would go on to own numerous residential and commercial properties. At the time of his death, his estate was estimated to be worth around $15 million.

In the year 2000, Peter, aged 51 at the time, met Shirley Withers, who was 33 years old. Peter was smitten when he first met Shirley. Peter had previously been married twice and had three daughters. Shirley herself had been divorced once and had two sons. Their relationship blossomed and moved quickly.

Peter bought her an upmarket fashion boutique in the Melbourne suburb of Brighton. Shirley ran the business, but Peter financed everything. He also bought her a house. Being divorced twice, Peter was in no hurry to move in together, so he stayed living in his Caulfield mansion and Shirley could have her own house to live in. Shirley had a key for Peter's mansion and vice versa.

## Events

Shirley Withers' business was in significant debt, she owed close to $300,000. She kept ordering high-end stock, despite not being able to sell the stock she currently had on hand. She started stealing from Peter to keep the business afloat and to allow her to maintain her luxurious lifestyle. She wrote cheques to herself from Peter's bank accounts, totalling to around $900,000 in stolen money.

A few weeks before his death, Peter started to catch on to what Shirley had been doing. His accountant told him there was more than enough evidence for Shirley to be charged. He immediately froze Shirley out of all his accounts. Shirley's life of luxury had just come to an abrupt halt and Peter put Shirley's house on the market.

This made Shirley angry and she started to formulate a plan to stop Peter from cutting her off. She befriended Stanley Callinocos and Sophia Stoupas, two petty criminals who stole to fund their heroin habit. She gave them thousands of dollars in cash in order to buy their friendship and trust. She also won them over with stories, detailing how Peter forced her to participate in bondage sessions. She said that he tied her up and abused her.

Sophia and Sophia were of the belief that they were just going to rough Peter up for cutting off Shirley's money supply and forced him to sign some documents for her, so they agreed to help Shirley.

On the night of the murder, Shirley picked up Stanley and Sophia and drove over to Peter's house. Shirley still had a key to his place, so they got in easily. They made their way to Peter's bedroom where he was found asleep. They immediately jumped on him and started the attack. During the initial struggle, Peter was able to bite Sophia's finger, which left Sophia's DNA at the scene.

Sophia responded by belting him over their head. Peter was knocked unconscious, but he wasn't dead. They dragged him out of his bed, down to the floor and tied him up. Shirley then injected Peter with heroin and they left the house.

Unbeknownst to Sophia and Stanley, Shirley returned the next day to give Peter another shot of heroin, just to make sure he wouldn't wake up. Shirley then set the crime scene up to make it look as though Peter had been engaging in a bondage act. She went to work for the day, then returned that night to make a fake frantic call to the emergency services. Police arrived to find Peter dead.

## Investigation

Shirley denied any involvement in Peter's death. It was found that Peter suffered repeated blunt force trauma to the head, resulting in a fractured skull, and had been pumped full of heroin. This rose suspicion as Peter was known to be very anti-drugs. Originally believing that Peter may have died as a result of a bondage session gone wrong, the police now believed his death to be deliberate murder.

They had matched a bloody fingerprint found at the scene to that of Sophia Stoupas. Despite their long criminal records, neither Sophia nor Stanley were known for violence. It was all drugs and property theft type scrime to support their drug habit.

Following this discovery, police receive evidence that Shirley had put a hit out on Sophia and Stanley. This raised some very interesting questions as how did Shirley Withers know Sophia and Stanley were involved in Peter's death? An undercover police officer posed as a hitman responding to Shirley's request. This is where Shirley admitted to the crimes.

## Aftermath

Sophia and Stanley both pled guilty to manslaughter. In exchange for testifying against Shirley, they were both given reduced sentences of six years jail with a non parole period of three and a half years.

Shirley pled guilty to hiring a Hitman conspiring to kill Sophia and Stanley, but pled not guilty to the murder of Peter. After a six week trial Shirley was found guilty of murder and sentenced to 26 years in jail with a non parole period of 18 years.

Shirley's sentence was reduced on appeal to 13 years jail with a non parole period of just 9 years. She has since been released.