Sexual advances on Patrick Francis McCarthy's niece led to Michael Varehov's murder, court hears Murder victim Michael Varehov, whose body was found in a grave at Kuitpo Forest in June, 2012. Picture supplied by SA Police. A MAN violently bashed a drug dealer to death after the dealer made unwanted sexual advances towards his niece and her friend, a court has heard. Patrick Francis McCarthy, 53, has been charged with murdering Michael Varehov, 43, at a Beaumont home in June, 2012. His co-accused, Bradley Eric Fowler, 47, who allegedly helped him dump the body in a shallow grave at Kuitpo Forest the next day, has been charged with assisting an offender. Opening the Supreme Court trial today, prosecutor Sandi McDonald said McCarthy had inflicted about 60 injuries on Mr Varehov after his niece and her friend had brought the drug dealer to the Beaumont house after a night in town. She said the girls thought Mr Varehov had already been paid by another man for the drugs but when they met him they were told that was not so. " (The friend) will tell you that once she was in there (the garage) the deceased made some sort of sexual advance to her and she screamed at him and told him off," she said. Ms McDonald said that upon hearing her friend scream, McCarthy's niece went into the garage to intervene where she was also touched inappropriately. She said the girls left the garage as McCarthy entered and then bashed the drug dealer to death in a "vicious and brutal attack in which Mr Varehov was shown no mercy." Ms McDonald said police had been called to the house after a neighbour heard worrying screams and when they arrived they smelt a strong scent of detergent and blood. She told the court police had also found McCarthy's clothes in the washing machine when they arrived. "There was a broken baton pretty much covered in blood ... the force of the beating had been such that it was sufficient to break the baton in half," Ms McDonald said. There was a piece of scalp with hairs attached to it that was on the floor as well. That was Mr Varehov's hair. Ms McDonald said that after the beating, McCarthy's niece saw that Mr Varehov was still alive because of small movements he was making. She said McCarthy had then rammed a cloth down Mr Varehov's throat and pinched his nose "until there was no further movement." Ms McDonald told the court Mr Varehov's body was placed in the boot of a car and GPS tracking would show Fowler helped McCarthy bury the body at Kuitpo Forest. She also told the court Mr Varehov had lived a "double life." "To his family he was a loving and supportive father and husband, to others he was very much part of the drug world," she said. In his world, large amounts of cash would regularly change hands. The trial, before Justice Malcolm Blue and a jury, is expected to take between two to three weeks. Originally published as Drug deal led to violent murder, court hears