Axe-murder model’s family appeal to Hungary PM

The family of a former British model murdered in Hungary appealed on Wednesday to the country’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban to hand over documents relating to the killing.

The remains of Eva Rhodes were discovered near the animal sanctuary she ran near the Austrian border in April 2009.

Employee Csaba Augusztinyi was jailed last year after admitting hitting the 65-year-old with an axe in an argument over wages.

The Hungarian-born model’s sister Judith Majlath handed a letter to Orban’s spokesman during a silent protest in front of the national embassy in the Austrian capital.

The premier is attending the World Economic Forum on Europe and Central Asia which kicked off in the city on Wednesday.

Friends and relatives have criticised Hungary’s lack of co-operation and are demanding that the government hand over documents relating to the case to the British authorities to clarify the circumstances of Rhodes’ murder.

Rhodes was born in Hungary in 1943 and fled to Austria in 1956 before emigrating to Britain in the sixties where she became a model and actress, featuring in John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s film “Rape”.

She returned to Hungary towards the end of the 1990s and set up an animal sanctuary in the western village of Bony.

Augusztinyi hit Rhodes in the head several times with an axe and then tried to cover up the killing by stealing cash and a laptop computer and burning her body.

He was jailed for 10 years in Budapest in September.