A man once identified by a coroner as a person of interest in the 2002 cruise ship death of Dianne Brimble has been spared prison for assaulting his wife.
Dragan Losic, 63, was sentenced to 14 months in prison but walked from the District Court of South Australia on Wednesday after a judge ruled that time he had already spent in custody and on home detention was an appropriate penalty.
Judge Carmen Matteo sentenced Losic to a nine-month, non-parole period on four counts of aggravated assault.
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Losic was one of eight Adelaide men who travelled together on the Pacific Sky cruise ship in September 2002, during which Brimble, 42, died after consuming a toxic mix of the drug fantasy and alcohol.
A coroner identified all eight men as persons of interest in the case, finding the mother-of-three was “unknowingly drugged by unscrupulous individuals who were intent on denigrating her for their own gratification”.
Losic has never been charged in relation to the case and no one has ever been convicted over Brimble’s death.
Three of the other members of the group had convictions recorded against them in connection to the case but did not serve jail time.
Matteo said that Losic had a tumultuous marriage that “degenerated into an unhealthy relationship”.
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He pleaded guilty to four charges, including two assaults on his wife in front of a child.
In one of the attacks, he pulled his wife out of bed by her hair onto the floor.
The couple has since separated.
“The court has a duty to ensure that offending within a domestic relationship behind closed doors is publicly denounced,” Matteo told Losic.
“Importantly, you have acknowledged through your counsel that your behaviour was completely unacceptable.”
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Losic has various prior convictions for assault, dishonesty and drug possession, cultivation and production.
He spent six weeks in custody after his arrest in July 2022.
He has since served two years of home detention while on bail.
“You have, in effect, served a punishment which I regard as appropriate,” Matteo said.
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