<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?> <docID>339514</docID> <postdate>2025-03-03 11:57:24</postdate> <headline>Mother-killer could walk free in less than four years</headline> <body><p><img class="size-full wp-image-339515" src="https://citynews.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/20250303169489350112-original-resized.jpg" alt="" width="900" height="600" /></p> <caption>Gordon Steven Ivankovic pleaded guilty to manslaughter after killing his mother at her home. (Joel Carrett/AAP PHOTOS)</caption> <p><span class="kicker-line">By <strong>Emily Woods</strong> in Melbourne</span></p> <p><strong>A judge has jailed a man for at least five years for killing his elderly mother and leaving her for dead on the kitchen floor.</strong></p> <p>Gordon Steven Ivankovic, 57, pleaded guilty to manslaughter after initially being charged with his mother Marija's 2023 murder.</p> <p>Her friends found the 81-year-old woman's lifeless body in the kitchen of her Maribyrnong home, in Melbourne's northwest.</p> <p>They had come over expecting to spend the night playing cards together, but her son had killed her hours earlier.</p> <p>Ivankovic went to visit his mother to help fit a mattress about 12.30pm on June 12, 2023, but ended up having an argument with her that escalated into a fatal assault.</p> <p>He grabbed the elderly woman and placed pressure to her face and neck, causing her death.</p> <p>He then fled without calling for help, leaving his mother's friends to find her body five hours later.</p> <p>Ivankovic's sister tried calling him the day her mother was found dead but he did not return her contact for six days.</p> <p>Ivankovic returned to the crime scene the day after the killing, ducking under the crime tape to try and go inside the family home.</p> <p>He became irritated when he couldn't go inside and said: "I need to know is everyone OK in there?"</p> <p>Ivankovic bought a train ticket to Sydney under a different name and then took a bus to Brisbane, arriving in the Sunshine State on June 20.</p> <p>He sought assistance from a homelessness organisation while in Queensland, which helped him to buy plane tickets to return to Melbourne.</p> <p>Ivankovic was arrested on June 23 in South Yarra, charged with murder and later pleaded guilty to manslaughter after accepting a sentence indication.</p> <p>Police attended the Maribyrnong property five times between 1993 and 2019 in response to incidents between Ivankovic and his mother, the court was told previously.</p> <p>Janine Staples, Ivankovic's sister who attended court for his sentence on Monday, previously said "the pain of her loss will stay with me forever" and her mother's absence had left a void in her life.</p> <p>Justice Jane Dixon took into account Ivankovic's difficult upbringing, mental health instability and drug addiction issues as she decided to jail him for a maximum of eight years.</p> <p>He will be eligible for parole in five years, but with time served could be freed on parole in less than four.</p> <p>The judge accepted Ivankovic's offending was spontaneous and unplanned, and he was experiencing shame and remorse for killing the only supporter in his life.</p> <p>"Your mother trusted you, was elderly and vulnerable, you assaulted her in her own home where she should've been safe," Justice Dixon told him.</p> <p>"She was an important person in your life, a support for you and you miss her. You are now without family support."</p> </body>