Man pleads guilty to manslaughter death of Lachlan Griffiths

A man has pleaded guilty to unlawfully killing another man, whose body has never been found, and being an accessory after a murder that resulted in human remains being encased in concrete.

David Lee Tan, 42, faced Brisbane Supreme Court on Wednesday to enter his plea, having originally been due to stand trial this week accused of murdering Lachlan Griffiths.

“Not guilty on the murder but guilty on the manslaughter,” Tan said.

Crown prosecutor Chris Cook told Justice Frances Williams he accepted Tan’s plea to the alternative charge.

Griffiths was last seen alive in the Brisbane CBD on January 16, 2022 before his mother reported the 35-year-old missing on Australia Day that year.

Tan admitted unlawfully killing Griffiths on or about January 17, 2022 at Coopers Plains, south of Brisbane.

Detectives have said they believe Griffiths was taken by car to that area but have yet to find his remains.

Tan along with Billy Lee Bornstein, 30, Filip Grbavac, 42, and Francescos Sebastian Giorgi, 43, were committed in November 2023 to stand trial for Griffiths’ murder.

Grbavac died of critical head injuries after an alleged fight with another prisoner in February.

Bornstein in July pleaded guilty to manslaughter, and Giorgi pleaded guilty to deprivation of liberty and assault occasioning bodily harm.

Giorgi was sentenced to two-and-half-years’ imprisonment and was released on parole due to time served.

Second murder case

Tan also pleaded guilty to being an accessory after the fact to the murder of Andrew Christopher Walsh, 35, whose body was found encased in concrete at a transport business at Coopers Plains in March 2022.

Prosecutors have alleged Joshua Robert Searston, 26, and Dewald De Klerk, 30, murdered Walsh around November 8, 2021.

Williams remanded Tan in custody to face sentencing on October 31 for both charges.

De Klerk was committed in July 2023 to stand trial for murder, while Searston’s case also remains before the courts.