Man jailed after stepfather's body 'left to rot' for 14 months

Stepson sentenced to nine years in jail over mummified body found in Gold Coast family home Fri 17 Jul 2026 at 6:34pm In short: Nikola Golem has been sentenced to nine years in jail after he let his stepfather's body rot in their Gold Coast home for more than a year. Police found the mummified body of 69-year-old Tomislav Nemes in April 2023 during a welfare check. What's next? With time already served, Mr Golem will be eligible for parole next month. A man who "left" his stepfather to "rot" before the body was found in a mummified state has been sentenced to nine years' imprisonment. Nikola Golem lied to his mother about her husband's death for more than a year, and let the "mentally unwell and fragile" woman sleep beside the decomposing body, Brisbane's Supreme Court heard on Friday. With time already served, Mr Golem will be eligible for parole next month after pleading guilty to manslaughter and interfering with a corpse. Police discovered the mummified remains of 69-year-old Tomislav Nemes at his waterfront Gold Coast home after they were called by his daughter to conduct a welfare check in April 2023. His stepson, Nikola Golem and wife, Dragica Nemes, had been living in the Benowa home with the decaying body for 14 months. Mr Nemes and his wife were practising Jehovah's Witnesses, and by 2020, they had begun to reject Western medication, resist treatment and become reluctant to engage with doctors. Justice Rebecca Treston said this became a particular issue for Mr Nemes, who had poorly controlled diabetes, back pain and hypertension, which reduced his life expectancy. Mr Golem resisted treatment and became bed-bound after a fall in 2021. "He was quite simply left to rot," she said. "What happened after his death is truly difficult to understand." The court heard Mr Golem lied to his mother, who spoke English as a second language and was "mentally unwell and fragile". Mr Golem told his mother doctors had recommended rest and herbal medication when he knew she was considering engaging genuine medication attention for her husband, the court heard. "You seriously misled your mother… You knew that he was dead. As a result, your mother continued to sleep beside her husband's dead body for some time until the smell of his decomposing body became too strong," Justice Treston said. Mr Golem took away Mr Nemes' phone after he began making financial investments and, as a result, he was cut off from his other family that lived interstate and could not call for help. Family unaware of death Ms Nemes' daughter Suzanna Belijanski said she was told a "string of lies" by Mr Golem when she travelled to the Gold Coast home to see him. She said it took police four days to do a welfare check. "For years, I didn't know where he was. I learnt only by chance when my sister ran into a relative," she said. Ms Belijanski said when she went to the house, Mr Golem and his mother appeared, and she was "told to go away very aggressively". "I was told a string of lies. My dad was taken to PA hospital, my dad was under an alias because people were out to get him," she told the court. "I rang the hospitals asking, no one had had him, because the whole time he was in his bed, where he'd been dead for 14 months." Ms Belijanski said she contacted police but was told initially that they were too busy to come to the home and advised her to "knock louder". She said she cannot "unsee" police footage of the welfare check where Mr Golem and his mother were making food in the kitchen. "As if my dad was not lying dead and decomposed in the next room," she said. Mr Nemes' other daughter, Elizabeth Marzano, cried as she spoke about how, during this time, her calls to her father went unanswered. "Dad was not forgotten. We believed he was living the retirement he worked so hard to earn; we believed he was happy." Ms Marzano said she didn't know her father had been sick and was "haunted" by thoughts of how he was left to die without medical care. "I find myself asking questions. Did he believe we had abandoned him? Did he know we would have come for him if we only knew?" 'He is remorseful' Mr Golem pleaded not guilty to murder but guilty to manslaughter. He also pleaded guilty to interfering with a corpse. He wore black padded headgear as he was pushed into court in a wheelchair. His defence lawyer, Martin Longhurst, said Mr Golem was best friends with his stepfather and had loved him. Mr Longhurst said Mr Nemes had an aversion to western medicine, and before going into a coma, he had refused to go to the hospital while he had verbal capacity. Mr Longhurst accepted that Mr Golem engaged in poor decision-making by lying to his mother, but he was afraid of upsetting her. He argued that Mr Golem should be released on parole immediately, as he had already served three years. "He is remorseful," Mr Longhurst said. Mr Longhurst argued Mr Golem had significant brain trauma after being in a car accident as an eight-month-old. He said Mr Golem had a low IQ of just 70. Mr Nemes' daughters said their father was a hardworking, resilient and dependable man. He had travelled to Australia from Yugoslavia, now Croatia, at just 15 and had become a successful businessman. "My father was so much more than the circumstances that have brought us before this court today," Ms Marzano said. "A man who spent his life working to create opportunities for the people he loved."