Muhammad Abdur Rehman Mirza: Man found guilty of woman’s ‘stabbing frenzy’ murder then dumping body in harbour

A 24-year-old man has been found guilty of murdering a young mother in a frenzied stabbing, keeping her body in his bathroom for days then dumping her body in Fremantle Harbour. Muhammad Abdur Rehman Mirza claimed at his Supreme Court of WA trial that he was forced to defend himself against Helen Marsuk, 25, when their late night sex tryst on December 1, 2022 turned violent. The State’s case was that Mirza sent a Telegram message inviting Ms Marsuk to his father’s Gosnell’s unit with the false promise of giving her a “point of meth” for sex. The jury was told they would hear references to “PnP” meaning Pipe and Play, which was code for having sex in exchange for drugs. But according to Mirza, when he failed to produce the drugs, she stabbed him during a physical fight and he then stabbed her more than 10 times. After killing her, Mirza locked her body in the bathroom for four days before dumping her at Fremantle Harbour where she was found by a fisherman out squidding. The fisherman first spotted a human foot, then leaned over some fencing to take a closer look and saw Ms Marsuk floating face down, with stab wounds to her back. In the meantime, Mirza had brought another woman to his home and even repeatedly urged her to stay the night - using air freshener to cover up the smell of the corpse. Mirza initially told police that the killer was a drug dealer with a “bogan beard” and nose piercings who had come to deliver the meth to the unit. But in his second interview, he admitting he was lying and claimed self-defence. “I honestly thought I was going to die,” he told police. “And I just thought I was trying to get away with it, like, not dying.” Prosecutor Katrin Robinson said Mirza formed a murderous intent “either just before he started stabbing her or while he was stabbing her and prevented her from fleeing his house”. Mirza’s defence barrister Simon Watters pointed the jury to evidence of Ms Marsuk’s drug use and said she had a history of violence. “The deceased was someone who had in the past used a knife in a heated situation,” Mr Watters said. The jury heard eight days of evidence and deliberated for almost 10 hours across Thursday and Friday, before the verdict was delivered. Mirza closed his eyes and took a deep breath when he was found guilty, before placing his head in his hands and staring at the floor. A psychological report will be prepared before he faces court for sentencing on November 27. 1800RESPECT