A Melbourne handyman accused of brutally slaying his elderly neighbour used a national television interview to send condolences to her family and praise the work of homicide detectives before he was charged with her murder, a trial has heard.
Stuart Paul Anderson is facing the Supreme Court of Victoria, where he has pleaded not guilty to murdering Vicki Ramadan at her home in Sydenham, in the city's north-west, more than three years ago.
Prosecutors argue Mr Anderson killed the 77-year-old, but his own lawyers say that Mrs Ramadan, who had a penchant for jewellery, was a "soft target" who could have been killed by someone else.
In April 2019, Mr Anderson raised the alarm after finding the elderly woman's body.
"I've got no idea how she died … she's got blood all over her, blood all over the floor, there's blood on the walls," he told authorities in a triple-0 call.
Graphic photos were shown to the jury on Tuesday, showing Mrs Ramadan lying on her side in a corridor, inside her home.
Forensic experts later found that she was beaten at least nine times with a blunt object.
Accused gave media interview in the days after his alleged crime
The jury was told on Tuesday that Mr Anderson and Mrs Ramadan were seen arguing before she was killed.
They were told the 77-year-old had accused Mr Anderson of stealing, which he denied, and she ultimately threatened to go to the police.
About 10 days after Mrs Ramadan's death, Mr Anderson gave an interview to the Nine Network's A Current Affair and said that he felt "really sick" when he found her body.
He told the television crew that he discovered that Mrs Ramadan's back door was broken.
"She was a very, very, very lovely lady. She didn't deserve this at all," Mr Anderson said.
"Unfortunately, it's a tragedy what happened. Condolences to her family and … I hope to God that the coppers catch him," he said.
"Homicide detectives are brilliant … they've been very nice to me and my partner, they've been very understanding and yeah they need all the help they can get."
But Crown prosecutor Neill Hutton told the jury Mr Anderson's comments, along with his statements to police, were lies.
"The trouble with this interview, the trouble with almost everything he says there … is that it's all essentially a sham," Mr Hutton said.
"It's a charade. It's false. He tells lies for several reasons. One of the reasons, we say, to make himself look like a much better person."
Mr Hutton said that months later, Mr Anderson changed his story and told investigators that he wanted to "tell the full truth".
He told them that the night before he raised the alarm, he went to Mrs Ramadan's house at 1:30am to pick up tools he had left there.
Mr Anderson said that after breaking down her back door by ramming it with his shoulder, he found the 77-year-old's body.
"I've noticed that Vicki was laying on the floor," he told police.
"I placed me tools down, went over there and I couldn't see anything because it was dark … I just touched her and felt that she was cold.
"I freaked out, like really freaked out, paranoia, everything kicked in at once. I got up and as I was walking off, I picked up me tools and walked out the back door."
He was later charged with her murder.
Mr Hutton raised questions about the accused man's credibility.
"He admits telling a big lie about how he found the body, when he found the body, how the door came to be broken in," Mr Hutton said.
"He lies to the uniformed police officers at the scene, he lies in his statements to police."
Defence describes victim as 'soft target'
But Glenn Casement, who is defending Mr Anderson, told the jury his client was innocent.
"He regrettably did not tell the whole truth," Mr Casement said.
"He should have, but he didn't."
Mr Casement said his client later came clean.
"He's hiding a break in, not a murder, because he found the deceased. He did not murder her," he said.
"Undoubtedly people should tell the truth to authorities, even if it's an inherently difficult truth, but sometimes people don't. But it doesn't make them murderers.
"What you might think matters more than telling an untruth is whether that person came good when it mattered."
Mr Casement suggested to the jury that Mrs Ramadan was a "regrettably soft target" who often wore expensive jewellery and withdrew large amounts of cash to pay for it.
He said that she lived near a squatter house which was used by people with "criminal histories" to trade drugs.
"Due to the transient nature of those that occupied the house and attended the premises, Victoria Police … were unable to identify who was in attendance at the premises," he said.
"Ask yourself, can the prosecution … exclude that another person was responsible for the death of the deceased?"
The trial continues.
