THE man convicted of the brutal slaying of his his former Swan Hill ex-wife will be sentenced later this month.
Adrian Basham, 46, was found guilty by a jury last April of the murder of Samantha Fraser inside the home they once shared at Cowes on Phillip Island in 2018.
He then attempted to stage her death to look like a hanging, claiming his wife killed herself in the moments after he brutally bashed her, because she was severely depressed.
The alarm was raised when Ms Fraser failed to pick up her three children from school.
Basham met Ms Fraser in 2005 and they married in 2007, before having three children.
After years of domineering and controlling behaviour by Basham, they separated in 2017 and Ms Fraser took out intervention orders.
On July 23, 2018, he turned up at Ms Fraser’s home and waited 90 minutes while she dropped their children at school, before killing her.
Ms Fraser flourished as captain at Swan Hill College in 1998 and her murder rocked former principal John Brookshaw.
Mr Brookshaw told The Guardian of Ms Fraser’s caring nature and ability to influence decisions in her year level.
“I knew the family through the school, where (her father) Trevor was my school council president,” Mr Brookshaw said.
“We communicated fairly regularly over three to four years.
“Sam was elected by the kids and staff as captain, and she was very popular, a caring person who took a lot of the issues kids had to the administrator of the school and got things done.
“She was a very effective captain.”
Mr Brookshaw said Ms Fraser, as an above-average student, was always bound for university and a successful career.
“She gave herself every chance to excel academically,” he said.
“Of all the students you had, you thought she would probably be one of the most successful students in her year level.
“It was amazing she ended up in the situation that she did.”
Mr Brookshaw said Ms Fraser’s murder “devastated” him.
“How could it happen to someone like her?
“If it can happen to Sam, as a psychologist, who knows the warning signs and knows what she has to do, it can happen to anyone.
“Most females know that, unless rules and laws change, everyone is vulnerable.”
Justice Lesley Taylor will sentence Basham in the Supreme Court in Melbourne on Monday, February 27.
