FORMER Swan Hill woman Samantha Fraser’s “last conscious moments would have passed in terror”, a judge told the Supreme Court in Melbourne on Monday.
Justice Lesley Taylor was jailing Ms Fraser’s estranged husband Adrian James Basham for life.
Basham, now 46, was ordered to serve at least 30 years.
Ms Fraser’s family and friends clapped as Basham was led out after sentencing.
After escaping horror family violence at the hands of a partner who had raped her, Ms Fraser was excited to begin a wonderful new stage of her life.
Her birthday on July 22, 2018, was supposed to be the starting point.
She pulled into her garage at Cowes, on Phillip Island, after driving her three children to school on July 23.
But Basham, who was lying in wait, savagely beat her, leaving 41 blunt-force injuries, tied a noose around her neck and hanged her from the garage door, staging her killing as a suicide.
“By any measure, your offending was extremely grave,” Justice Taylor said.
“You invaded the legal and physical sanctity of Ms Fraser’s home and subjected her to a savage beating before hanging her.
“Her last conscious moments would have passed in terror.”
Justice Taylor found it was most likely Basham surprised Ms Fraser as she sat in the driver’s seat of her car, having waited more than two hours in the garage for her to return home.
The couple met in 2005 and married in 2007 but, after years of Basham’s domineering and controlling behaviour, Ms Fraser left the relationship in 2017.
Basham was charged in August that year with raping her during their marriage and she was due to give evidence against him a week later.
The premeditated murder, motivated by his desire to avoid standing trial for rape, was selfish in the extreme and displayed an extraordinary degree of entitlement, Justice Taylor said.
“Your decision to execute Samantha Fraser, a woman who found the courage to defy you, keep your children safe from you and live a life free from you, was cold.
“You determined that her life was expendable … and you had the arrogance to think you would not be caught.
“The suggestion that Samantha Fraser took her own life after you had so brutally attacked her is ludicrous.
“The staging of the would-be suicide scene was part of your fictional conceit that you were not at Phillip Island at the relevant time.”
She found Basham was “unmoved” in the face of numerous statements detailing the pain he had caused his own children by killing their mother.
“You are utterly without remorse,” Justice Taylor said.
“You do not accept the returned jury verdict in what was an overwhelming prosecution case.
“You continue to maintain that Ms Fraser took her own life.
“Your behaviour towards Ms Fraser within your marriage and your premeditated murder of her to prevent her giving evidence of rape against you is conduct that is selfish in the extreme and displays an extraordinary degree of entitlement.”
Ms Fraser, 38, had told a friend she was feeling strong and determined to have her voice heard in court at the rape trial.
But she was terrified of him. An intervention order was in place, Ms Fraser’s parents had moved in with her to help protect her and less than 48 hours before her death Ms Fraser said she was being more vigilant about her safety after Basham was seen on the island.
The day before she died she celebrated her birthday. Her previous birthday had been horrible, she told her new partner, but in a text to him on the day of her death revealed this birthday would mark the beginning of a wonderful new stage.
Ms Fraser’s parents described her as a mother who loved her children fiercely and was the centre of her children’s universe.
They were five, seven and nine when she died.
Her eldest daughter, now teenage, said nothing would compare to the damage Basham had done to her and her family’s lives.
“He murdered my mum. He took Sammy’s life and in doing so destroyed so many others.”
– with AAP
For help with family and sexual violence, call Respect, 1800 737 732. Anyone requiring urgent help can call Lifeline’s 24-hour number, 131 114.
