Bradley Scott Edwards pleads guilty to manslaughter of Ioli Hadjilyra in Kalinga Park, Brisbane

A man responsible for the death of a young woman whose body was found in a Brisbane park has avoided a murder conviction, after a court accepted his guilty plea to the lesser charge of manslaughter.

Bradley Scott Edwards was due to face trial in the Supreme Court in Brisbane on Monday for the murder of 26-year-old Ioli Hadjilyra, whose body was found in a garden bed at Kalinga Park in Brisbane’s north in late 2019.

But the trial was aborted after Edwards, who was 34 at the time of the offence, pleaded guilty to manslaughter.

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Prosecutors accepted the plea and Edwards is due to be sentenced on Friday.

Hadjilyra’s battered and partially hidden body was found by council workers in a garden bed on September 4, 2019.

Edwards was arrested in the inner north days later after police were alerted to his whereabouts by members of the public, before he was charged with murder.

Police said at the time that Hadjilyra, a talented sketch artist, may have had her clothing interfered with and attempts were made to hide her body.

Hadjilyra’s body was discovered alongside some of her sketches.

She was a dual national, having been born in Cyprus to a Cypriot mum and an Australian dad.

Police described her as a “popular young lady from a good family”.