Man accused of helping dispose of tragic Melbourne body Teenager Isla Bell has been released from jail.
Eyal Yaffe, 57, of Hampton, faces a charge of assisting a felon in murder.
On Monday, Magistrate Rohan Lawrence allowed Yaffe to walk free from Melbourne Magistrates Court despite describing his alleged crimes as “callous” and “disgusting”.
His decision was met with tears from inside the courtroom, where members of Ms. Bell’s family were sitting in the back.
They stood stunned as Mr Lawrence described all the reasons why he believed Yaffe was entitled to go free.
“In my opinion, the prosecution has not demonstrated that Mr. Yaffe is an unacceptable risk,” he said.
On Wednesday, Marat Ganiev, 53, from St Kilda, appeared at the same court charged with Bell’s murder. He did not request bail and was remanded in custody.
Outside the court, Ms. Bell’s relatives refused to speak to a waiting media group and asked to be left alone.
Isla Bell’s family leave Melbourne Magistrates Court on Monday after Yaffe was granted bail
On Thursday the court heard that Ms Bell had tShe thought she had found the man of her dreams in the days before his alleged brutality. murdered by a man twice her age.
Daily Mail Australia revealed police allege the 19-year-old sent a text message to her friend just hours before her alleged murder expressing her happiness.
In a Snapchat post sent on October 7, Ms Bell, who was last seen leaving her Brunswick home in Melbourne three days earlier on October 4, told her friend she had “found the best sugar daddy,” according to court documents.
His remains were found at a landfill site in Dandenong six weeks later, on November 19, and have yet to be formally identified.
Applying for bail, Yaffe’s lawyer, Ian Hill KC, said the former jeweler could live with his son, Ziv Yaffe, and be monitored electronically.
It was a condition accepted by the magistrate, and Yaffe would be equipped with the monitor at all times while out on bail.
The court heard he is banned from attending five addresses linked to the alleged crime or attempting to visit any port from which he could flee the country.
The court heard Yaffe was armed with a ticket to Bulgaria when he was arrested, and bought it the day after police detained him for questioning.
Two men have been charged after police found suspicious human remains in their search for 19-year-old Isla Bell (pictured).
Marat Ganiev, 53, from St Kilda, appeared in the Melbourne Magistrates Court on Wednesday charged with Bell Island’s murder.
Eyal Yaffe (pictured) appeared jovial within the confines of the prison court on Wednesday. He is accused of helping the man who allegedly murdered Isla Bell hide his crime.
Prosecutors had argued that Yaffe not only posed a flight risk, but also a risk to public safety and prosecution witnesses.
“In my opinion, the case against him depends not on witnesses but on phone records, CCTV cameras and statements to police,” Lawrence said.
“There is no rational reason to believe that it would interfere.”
In defending his release, the lawyer for Yaffe, a prominent Melbourne businessman, criticized the police case against his client.
“The facts are clear, there is no direct evidence and we say there is no evidence from which it can be inferred,” Hill said last week.
The court was told that under Victorian law Yaffe had a prima facie right to bail unless the court was satisfied he posed an unacceptable risk.
Court documents have described the alleged heartbreaking final moments of Ms. Bell’s life.
Bell told her friend that a “sugar daddy” had lavished her with gifts and “saved her from sex traffickers.”
Ziv Yaffe leaves court Monday after his father was granted bail
Isla Bell (pictured) was last seen leaving her home in Brunswick, inner-city Melbourne, around 6pm on October 4. His remains were found in a landfill six weeks later.
She had supposedly moved in with Ganiev just two days earlier, a day after her desperate mother reported Bell missing to the police.
Police allege Ganiev murdered Bell shortly after midnight on October 7.
Homicide Squad detectives allege CCTV cameras at Ganiev’s St Kilda East apartment complex captured what appeared to be him attacking Ms Bell.
Cameras recorded Ms Bell entering her apartment at 9.27pm on October 5, but she never emerged alive, police allege.
From a gap in the front kitchen window, police allege that Ms. Bell’s head could be seen “spinning” as Ganiev punched her.
“She falls to the floor and Ganiev can then be seen hitting her on the kitchen floor,” court documents state.
“What appears to be Bell’s head can be seen rising before being pushed down by Ganiev’s arm.”
The footage allegedly captured Ms Bell alive between 12.43am and 2am, when she disappeared from view.
Police allege Ganiev went to work cleaning the apartment over the next few days.
Detectives allege Yaffe became involved after receiving a call from Ganiev on November 8, a day after Ms. Bell was said to have been murdered.
The next day, he allegedly drove to Ganiev’s flat in St Kilda East and dropped off a new black refrigerator, returning on October 17 to pick up the old one wrapped in plastic.
Police allege Isla Bell’s body was put in a refrigerator and then left in a dumpster.
Police allege that Mrs. Bell’s remains were inside the refrigerator.
Over the next few days, the trailer was allegedly moved to three locations around Melbourne allegedly associated with Mr Yaffe, with one person later telling police it had a “foul smell” and attracted flies.
Detective Senior Constable Benjamin Curran told the court it was the police case that Yaffe knew the fridge contained her body and that she had been killed.
“At that point it had been 10 days since she had died… It’s not a smell that can be confused or forgotten,” he said.
When Yaffe was arrested, police allegedly found methamphetamine and $6,000 in cash on him.
Although he initially denied involvement in hiding Ms Bell’s body, police claim Yaffe eventually admitted to the crime but claimed to have known nothing about how the teenager died.
On Wednesday, Bell’s heartbroken mother, Justine Spokes, issued a heartbreaking statement in memory of her daughter as Ganiev appeared in court.
“I am so sorry, my dear daughter,” he said.
‘I couldn’t protect you from your complex illnesses and this cruel world.
‘I felt very proud of your decisions this year, of your strength to resist despite your suffering.
‘All you ever wanted was to create, make and nurture life, love and be loved.
‘We were looking forward to being reunited as a family again; My heart hurts and I can’t reconcile that it’s not going to happen.’
He said his daughter was “the gentlest soul, the kindest, free-spirited human.”
“I will connect with you in spirit, my Care Bear, and no one can take that connection away from us,” he added.
A 63-year-old Mulgrave man was also arrested but released pending further inquiries.
The Missing Persons Squad formally took over the investigation at the end of October.