Edmund Ian Riggs pleads not guilty to murder of wife Patricia

A man who is on trial for the murder of his wife almost 18 years ago will give evidence in his own defence tomorrow.

Patricia Riggs was last seen at her Margate home on September 30, 2001.

A MAN who is on trial for the murder of his wife almost 18 years ago will give evidence in his own defence tomorrow.

Edmund Ian Riggs’s defence counsel, Lars Falcongreen, told the jury in the Supreme Court trial that Riggs would give, and call, evidence.

Crown prosecutor, Todd Fuller QC, closed the Crown case this afternoon, on the third day of the trial of Riggs for the murder of his wife, Patricia Anne Riggs, 34, on September 30, 2001.

Riggs pleaded guilty at the start of the trial to interfering with her corpse.

A series of agreed admissions were read to the jury, who were told by Justice Peter Flanagan that they should treat the admissions as facts in the trial.

Earlier today, a woman who had a relationship with Riggs said he told her his wife had walked out and he thought at the time she had a boyfriend, a court has heard.

Jeanette Wales was in a relationship with Ian Riggs from September to December, 2002, about a year after Riggs reported his wife missing.

Edmund Riggs pleads not guilty to murder of wife

Ms Wales said Riggs told her about his wife, after she saw a newspaper story about her disappearance in September, 2002.

“He said they had an argument and the lamp in the bedroom was broken and there was blood on the floor, but it was from a nose bleed Patricia had,” Ms Wales said.

“He said she walked out and he believed she had a boyfriend.”

Ms Wales, who met Riggs when she saw him for a massage, first made a statement to police about the conversation 14 years later.

Edmund Ian Riggs, known as Ian, has denied murdering his wife, Patricia Riggs, 34, in their Margate home on September 30, 2001, but has pleaded guilty to interfering with her corpse.

In August, 2016, her partial skeletal remains, wrapped in a swimming pool liner, were found by a new owner of the house, while digging in the back yard.

Riggs had originally removed his wife’s body from their home and years later moved her remains back to the property, the Supreme Court heard.

A former Queensland Police crime scene scientific officer told the court of stains he examined on the wallpaper on a wall behind Patricia and Ian Riggs’s bed in 2001.

Sean Remedios said he asked for 3 Janet St, Margate to be declared a crime scene on the evening of October 15, 2001,about two weeks after she went missing.

Mr Remedios said he saw nine areas of suspected blood spatter on floral wallpaper behind a metal bed head in the Riggs’s Margate master bedroom and one on the bed frame.

He determined it to be medium velocity blood spatter.

Mr Remedios said he calculated the source of the blood spatter was 450mm out from the wall and 1.25m from the bedroom doorway.

In his opinion, it was all from one event.

Queensland Health forensic scientist Angelina Keller said DNA from six samples of blood from the wallpaper matched Patricia Riggs’s DNA.

The trial is continuing.

Ian and Patricia Riggs’s daughter Matilda at the Supreme Court in Brisbane on Tuesday. Picture: John Gass/AAP

Son Edgar ‘Ned’ Riggs at the Court. Picture: Dave Hunt/AAP

EARLIER: IN the month before she went missing, a mother-of-four told friends she had found out her husband had slept with prostitutes and had an affair with her bridesmaid, a court has heard.

Angela Agostini told the Supreme Court her friend, Patricia Riggs, had become really upset about finding a list of prostitutes or call girls in husband Ian Riggs’s pocket.

Edmund Ian Riggs has pleaded not guilty to the murder of his wife, Patricia Anne Riggs, 34, but guilty to interfering with her corpse, at Margate on September 30, 2001.

Mrs Riggs’s partial skeletal remains were found buried in the yard of their former Margate home in 2016.

Mrs Agostini told the Supreme Court Tricia told her that her bridesmaid had revealed she and Ian had had an affair years earlier.

“She was adamant she was going to stay married to her husband and try to make the marriage work for the kids. It was always the kids, they were essential to her marriage,” she said.

Mrs Riggs’s bridesmaid, Shantele Tait, said she had told Tricia she had not had sex with her husband, although they had talked years earlier about having a weekend away together.

Ms Tait said Mrs Riggs called her in August, 2001, saying she wasn’t happy in her marriage and asking if she should tell Ian she had slept with someone.

She said she told Tricia Ian had revealed he had slept with prostitutes while away working in mines.

Another friend, Lisa Davies, said Trish had spoken of her guilt about “sleeping around on Ian’’.

The court heard of Mrs Riggs having sex with a Melbourne man while on the Gold Coast at a conference in 2001 and of previously having a relationship with a younger man.

Ms Davies said Trish did not want to leave Ian because of the children and the financial impact.

“She would be left with nothing,” Ms Davies said.

In their last conversation, about a week before she disappeared, Ms Davies said Trish told her she was concerned, because she had told Ian’s sister that if she got divorced she would take Ian for everything he had and “it wouldn’t be pretty”.

Ms Davies said on the Wednesday after Mrs Riggs went missing Ian told her she had walked out and had not taken things she would normally take with her.

“He was vague. It was very difficult getting out of him what was going on,” she said.