Cairns crime: Anthony McPhee sentenced to life for murdering partner at Trinity Beach

A man who viciously stabbed his partner at a beachfront unit and spent five days with her body before calling triple-0 has learned his fate in Cairns Supreme Court. How he explained his actions.

A MAN who fatally stabbed a woman multiple times told paramedics she had committed suicide when he rang triple-0 five days after the murder, Cairns Supreme Court heard on Monday.

Anthony McPhee was aged 60 when he killed 71-year-old Kay Dix at the Trinity Beach unit they shared, by stabbing her four times with wounds ranging from 5cm to 14cm in depth.

Mr McPhee had googled “paracetamol poisoning” two weeks before he killed Ms Dix, crown prosecutor Nathan Crane said.

The court heard Ms Dix probably died on Tuesday March 27, 2018, but Mr McPhee did not make the triple-0 call until Saturday, when there was a noticeable stench.

Mr Crane said financial pressure and the increasing responsibility of caring for Ms Dix, who had several ailments, may have been motivating factors.

Police officers were called to the Coral Sands Apartments at Trinity Beach on March 31, 2018, where the decomposing body of Kay Dix, 71, was found on a bed covered with blankets and towels. PICTURE: BRENDAN RADKE

A slight man with short-cropped hair, Mr McPhee sat gingerly on a foam cushion he brought with him and showed no emotion.

The couple was in a platonic relationship where they shared finances for more than 20 years and they were in dire financial straits at the time Ms Dix was killed – she had two accounts with $190,000 and $163,000 but these were almost totally depleted.

Mr McPhee said her ailing health was depressing to him.

However, Mr Crane said Ms Dix had seen her doctor a week before her death and he described her as ‘in fair health’.

CCTV footage showed Mr McPhee throwing something in the unit complex bin the day the rubbish was collected, and Mr Crane said that was probably the knife used in the attack.

Apart from that, he did not leave the unit in the days following her death.

Murderer Anthony McPhee and victim Kay Dix lived a reclusive life at the Coral Sands Beachfront Resort, Cairns Supreme Court heard on Monday. PICTURE: BRENDAN RADKE

He told paramedics he had shaken Ms Dix a few times and she did not respond.

“I did not know she was dead, it’s not my area of expertise,” Mr McPhee said.

Mr McPhee subsequently admitted he killed Ms Dix when he went to wake her and she grumbled at him.

“I put an end to her suffering, I thought I was helping her,” Mr McPhee told a psychiatrist.

A victim impact statement from Ms Dix’s three daughters, who were in court, was read out.

They said their mother was a well-regarded community member involved in many activities in her South Australian hometown, but became vulnerable when her third husband had an affair and left her, and Mr McPhee pounced on her vulnerability.

Anthony McPhee likely murdered Kay Dix on March 27 but did not call triple-0 until March 31, Cairns Supreme Court heard on Monday. PICTURE: BRENDAN RADKE

She then embraced a lifestyle of drinking, gambling, racehorse ownership and mounting debt, they said.

“Tony has had total disregard for her, he spent all of her money, and when she was no longer any use to him … it was truly spineless,” the women said in their statement.

“It was self-serving, callous and inhumane.”

Sentencing Mr McPhee to life in prison with no parole date set, Justice James Henry said the murder and subsequent events were “plainly utterly illogical, barbaric and selfish thinking”.

The case languished for three years due to arguments about Mr McPhee’s fitness to stand trial, although on February 19, 2022 he was found able to do so.

Justice Henry said it was “a ridiculous amount of time”.

Mr McPhee intended to plead not guilty because he said he was “not a classical murderer” but changed his mind last week and indicated he would plead guilty.

Originally published as Cairns crime: Anthony McPhee sentenced to life for murdering partner at Trinity Beach