A Melbourne jury on Tuesday found Daniel Waters, 43, not guilty of murdering his neighbor Barbara Chabaud, 63, in a city housing commission complex in May 2021. Terrifying video of Waters abusing Ms. Chabaud in the hours before she died can now be revealed. Waters walked free from the Supreme Court of Victoria after not only being cleared of murder, but the alternative charge of manslaughter. He had been Victoria Police’s only suspect in a case Waters’ barrister claimed had been bungled from the outset.

In a series of videos uploaded to YouTube, Waters is heard accusing his now deceased neighbor of ‘throwing excrement’ on his front door and stealing his mate’s bicycle wheel. Ms. Chabaud could be heard accusing him in response of stalking her for the full eight years she had lived in the government housing flat. Ms. Chabaud told police days before her murder she’d put far too much work into her unit to want to shift. She was house proud, she even kept the mats tidy out the front, the court heard. Waters had banked on the jury might believe another neighbor may have had motive to kill Ms. Chabaud.

After eight years of ongoing harassment, she decided to strike back and throw a concoction she cooked up on the accused’s screen door. She didn’t realize what a powder keg she had ignited by that small act of retaliation. The court heard police believed Waters somehow caught Ms. Chabaud outside her unit later that evening. He inflicted severe and fatal injuries upon her. The murder would have only taken minutes.

Fallowing his infliction of injuries upon her he dumped her body in the concrete stairwell. He defiled her body removing articles of clothing, exposing her breasts and genitals. He pulled her pants down and pulled up her top. Daniel Waters was found not guilty of murdering Barbara Chabaud.