Klementina Alimic pleads guilty to contravening personal safety order of murder trial witness

A magistrate has put a fraudster on blast, after she pleaded guilty to harassing a witness in one of Geelong’s most high-profile murder cases.

Klementina Alimic pictured leaving court in 2018. Inset: Ricky Balcombe and Karl Hague.

A Geelong fraudster whose current focus is helping free a man found guilty in one of the city’s most high-profile murder cases has pleaded guilty to harassing a witness.

Klementina Alimic, 38, appeared in the Geelong Magistrates Court on Monday, and pleaded guilty to three counts of contravening an interim personal safety intervention order.

The court heard the order was taken out by a Crown witness in the trial of Karl Hague, who was found guilty in 2018 of fatally stabbing Geelong teenager Ricky Balcombe in 1995.

A jury found Hague killed Balcombe in Market Square in retaliation for an earlier altercation.

Hague was sentenced to 26 years in prison and in 2019 the Victorian Court of Appeal dismissed a bid to overturn the conviction.

In October, the Geelong Advertiser revealed Hague was preparing another appeal, and that Alimic was linked to a Facebook group called Karl Hague Is Innocent, which had gained thousands of members.

Murdered Geelong teenager Ricky Balcombe.

An interim personal safety order was served on Alimic in August last year, after the witness discovered she was posting about him online on Facebook and TikTok.

Some of the content cited described the witness as a “liar and a dog”, according to documents released by the court.

On August 30, Alimic was interviewed at her home after breaching the order and told police she had “become an advocate for wrongful convictions and false allegations”.

She said she would take down the posts, but said she did not post on TikTok as “TikTok banned me”, according to court documents.

Karl Hague entering court in 2018. Picture Yuri Kouzmin

Regarding one breach, Alimic told police the Wrongful Convictions Matter site was “hacked” and said she was “not sure who posted them”.

In October, Alimic commented “Ricky Balcombes’ friends killed Ricky Balcombe! And even attended Ricky’s funeral” on a post in the group.

Three days later, the court heard Alimic used a screenshot of the post in a TikTok video.

After being arrested on October 19, Alimic told police the witness was trying to “silence” her.

Magistrate Simon Guthrie said he was “greatly troubled” by Alimic’s behaviour and put her on blast for taking the role of “vigilante”.

Ms Alimic’s lawyer, Kate Saunders, told the court her client was remorseful and “didn’t appreciate the seriousness” of the intervention order.

Ms Saunders said Alimic was not formally employed, but was working for a “non-profit” called Wrongful Convictions Matter.

“Ms Alimic and other members of that organisation are contacted by whoever it may be, and they undertake a degree of research and assistance,” Ms Saunders said.

Ms Saunders said she had contacted Hague’s lawyers, who advised her that Ms Alimic was assisting them with an upcoming appeal.

Mr Guthrie said Alimic was entitled to help Hague with his appeal, but “she’s not entitled to do this” in relation to her offending.

Mr Guthrie said he accepted Alimic was remorseful and that the IVO may have been “new territory” for her.

He sentenced her to a 12-month good behaviour bond, without conviction, and ordered she pay $500 into the court fund.

In 2022, Alimic pleaded guilty to swindling more than $13,000 from Medicare using fraudulent documents and received a nine-month good behaviour bond, without conviction.

Originally published as Klementina Alimic pleads guilty to contravening personal safety order of murder trial witness