Man jailed for 16 years over deadly Epping home invasion

Torris Folau was drunk and looking to score drugs when he broke into a Melbourne home and randomly attacked two people, killing one man and seriously injuring another.

He was withdrawing from ice when he arrived at the Epping property on May 16, 2020, and began yelling and screaming at the residents from outside, the Supreme Court heard on Friday.

Forensic Police arrive at the Epping property on the day after the killing in 2020. Credit:Chris Hopkins

Just after 8pm, a man arrived in an Uber and was approached by Folau, who asked him if he could score him some drugs.

The man went inside and warned the residents that people outside were going to do a “run through” if they didn’t get them drugs.

Folau, then aged 24, forced the front door open with another person and found two women cowering in a locked bedroom. He asked them “where’s the stuff?”

The women had noticed Folau lurking outside and grabbed a knife to defend themselves, but Folau found the weapon on the bed and took it from them.

He went to the living room where he hit a man, who had been sleeping on the couch, across the head.

He then attacked Hashmat Nawabi, stabbing him multiple times in the neck and head with the knife.

Nawabi was later found slumped against a wall in the corner of the living room. Paramedics tried to resuscitate him, but he died at the scene.

Folau pleaded guilty to manslaughter, intentionally causing serious injury and home invasion in March this year.

He was initially charged with murder and pleaded not guilty, but entered his guilty plea to manslaughter at the beginning of the Supreme Court trial.

Folau’s barrister John Desmond said his client’s decision to use the knife was spontaneous, as he was not armed when he broke into the house.

Nawabi’s widow told the court their child and families had been left devastated by the attack and said what Folau did would remain with her for the rest of her life.

The man who was injured during the home invasion was taken to hospital with large lacerations to his forehead. He was diagnosed with a traumatic brain injury, requiring rehabilitation.

Folau, who did not know his victims, apologised to them and asked for forgiveness in a letter handed to the court.

Justice Lex Lasry handed Folau a 16-year prison sentence on Friday and condemned the “gratuitous” offending.

“These were aggressive, uncontrolled and violent offences you committed, and the victims were people you did not know,” he said.

“These offences are of the kind that frighten the public – invading a home, inflicting severe and then fatal violence.”

The 26-year-old has already served more than two years of his sentence and he will be eligible for parole in 10 years.

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