But few could have predicted this would set off a chain of events where the Gold Coast businessman would allegedly confess to one of Australia’s most notorious conmen that he had killed his wife.

Novy Chardon: the last frantic year of her life as she attempted to leave her husband

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After the 72-year-old was yesterday convicted of the 2013 manslaughter of Novy Chardon, 34, The Courier-Mail can now reveal the how Foster went from convicted fraudster to the prison supergrass who wanted to make good by seeing a wife killer go down.

The detailed statement Foster made to police and the alleged confession he elicited can for the first time be published in full.

The evidence was never shown to the jury in Chardon’s murder trial because a court deemed it inadmissable.

THE MEETING

Foster was serving an 18-month sentence for civil contempt when he first met Chardon in early 2015 at Queensland jail.

The Gold Coast millionaire was well into his six-year stint for raping a teenage girl at the time.

According to a police statement made by Foster in 2015, he first learnt about Chardon when he saw another inmate reading a newspaper story about the man.

The lubricant tycoon already had a reputation among the other prisoners.

“He’s the guy that flew to Asia after killing his wife,” one man allegedly explained in response to Foster’s question about the man.

Foster said he tore the article out and gave it to Chardon.

“John was what we refer to as a cave dweller. This is a person that rarely comes out of their cell and does not mix with other prisoners in the unit,” Foster told police of his first impression.

“After this initial contact with, John he would start seeking me out for conversations.”

Foster told police Chardon took a shine to him because they were both aged over 50, from the Gold Coast and the “odd men out” at Wolston Correctional Centre.

Foster later opined: “I believe the reason that John confided in me was that I had endeared myself to him. I had been kind to him when I gave him the newspaper article. Prior to me befriending John he was a loner. He would interact with no one in the jail … I think he always saw me as a good listener and that I was good for his ego because I would always listen to his stories.”

And so the trust between them grew.

The pair began talking long walks on the prison oval at lunchtimes.

“It was during these walks that John first started talking to me about the disappearance of his wife Novy,” Foster said in the statement.

They’d talk about Chardon’s case, his upcoming appeal for the child-sex offences and an alleged plan the businessman hatched to leave the country by boat and not be found, the statement claimed.

One night there was a story on the ABC News about Chardon’s case, the statement said.

Foster claimed the man wasn’t fussed to see police searching a property for Novy’s body.

“It was at this stage after our many talks about police not having any forensic evidence, extradition treaties, my boat and John wanting to flee the country, along with the lack of interest in the ABC News story that I formed an opinion that he was a predatory and had killed Novy,” Foster told police.

CELLMATES

By late March 2015, the pair were sharing a cell at the prison.

Foster had approached detectives one month earlier, telling them he believed Chardon had killed his wife and he wanted to help.

“I despised spending time with the man. I felt that he had killed Novy and I could assist police to solve her disappearance and this is why I continued to speak with John,” Foster said in his statement.

Foster previously told a court getting the killer to confess was similar to sales — he had to make the customer comfortable and “gain his trust”.

“I decided I would talk openly about everything,” Foster explained of his mindset at the time.

“I made a lot of s*** up admitting to crimes that I hadn’t done and just making out that I was confiding in him and not worried about talking in the cell.”

Foster wasn’t wearing a wire when the pair first started chatting.

He later told police he was reluctant to speak about Novy in case Chardon spilt the beans before he was ready with the recording device.

Chardon was also paranoid, he believed his cell was bugged and would always turn on the TV to drown out their conversations, Foster claimed.

In time Chardon began to soften to Foster, telling him about his “porn library” and girlfriends in the Philippines, who Foster said he would refer to as “little brown f***ing buddies”.

About one month in, the unlikely roommates had settled into a routine.

They would lie in bed, watch TV together and chat.

The night Foster claims Chardon told him he murdered his wife, he had bought candy for them both and they were watching their second episode of the 1980s comedy M*A*S*H for the night.

It was then the Gold Coast businessman had a “meltdown”, according to Foster.

“John had appeared quite happy whilst he had been eating the lollies and watching television so it took me by surprise when I looked up and saw him sitting on the edge of his bed with his head placed down to his knees looking at the floor,” Foster told police in his explosive statement.

“From where I was lying, I could see tears coming from his eyes. I wasn’t expecting this as it was such a dramatic mood swing.”

Foster asked Chardon what was wrong, he said.

“He was silent for a long time. I don’t recall exactly what it was but John told me that he had been speaking with his son … and they would normally do something on April Fool’s Day. Whatever it was it triggered him off big time.

“I had never seen John like this before I would describe him as being broken.”

Foster asked his cell mate again what was wrong, he told detectives.

“John said: ‘They’re going to f***ing charge me and it’s all that lawyers fault’,” the statement said.

Foster asked Chardon who he was referring to.

He allegedly replied: “Novy’s lawyer”.

Foster claimed Chardon then “unloaded” about the killing and they stayed up all night talking.

He later made notes, according to the statement.

THE DETAILS

In a shocking and detailed alleged confession, Chardon allegedly told Foster he’d paid former detective and accused fraudster Michael Featherstone thousands of dollars to “obtain statements from Novy’s family and friends to say that they had sighted Novy in Indonesia” and they would be his “get out of jail free card”.

Chardon claimed he’d driven to his lubricant factory the day Novy went missing, according to the statement.

“He told me that he raced in and grabbed a gun,” Foster claimed.

The statement also alleged Chardon told Foster he shot Novy in the back of the head, telling him a gun silencer could be made from household items.

“He did not say where he did this. He told me that a .22 (caliber) bullet doesn’t always exit the head it can roll around in the brain like jelly. John told me if you used a .38 (caliber) it would leave a big blood splatter. John gestured with his hands as if there would be blood everywhere. Then John said a .22 can make more noise than a .38 and that’s why he used a silencer,” Foster claimed.

Foster also alleged Chardon later told him: “I didn’t have time to find a location to bury Novy. I didn’t have time to dig a hole as the ground around Coomera was like hard clay”.

He claimed Chardon told him he drove to the Southport Seaway and was going to throw the body in but the tide was too low, so he took Novy’s body back home until the next morning.

Foster’s statement alleged Chardon told him he later got a boat and went to Stradbroke Island with Novy’s corpse.

He claimed the man was just about to start digging a hole when he realised the spot wasn’t isolated enough.

He later returned to the Seaway and left Novy’s body, Foster claims in his statement.

“John then said ‘I weighted her with moderate weights so she would go under. I punctured her stomach so gases wouldn’t fill up and make her float,” Chardon allegedly told him.

In later covert recordings obtained by Foster, Chardon did not confess to the killing.

He discussed bizarre conspiracy theories, allegedly claiming the World Trade Centre had been “blown up by the CIA” and the Port Arthur massacre had been “orchestrated by the police”, according to the statement.

Foster claimed Chardon told him he cleaned the carpets the morning after Novy went missing because his wife had vomited and “pissed herself”.

He also said in the statement Chardon told him he kept Novy’s G-string as a souvenir from the killing.

Chardon allegedly claimed he developed the motive to kill Novy after she made a scene at a restaurant on an earlier trip to the US, Foster claimed.

“He told me that was the first time he though that he would have to kill her to get rid of her,” Foster said in the statement.

Foster allegedly asked why Chardon didn’t just divorce Novy and said he told him “that she was going to bleed him dry”.

THE REASON

In mid-May 2015, Foster stopped his conversations with Chardon.

He told police: “I do believe that on the evening that John first admitted to me that he killed Novy that he was a broken man. I have never seen a person in real life have an emotional melt down like he did. I truly believe he just needed someone to talk to”.

Foster said he believed Chardon was “a very dangerous man. I think he is a predator and a manipulator”.

“From my discussions with him, I have formed the opinion that he sees women as inferior and only to be used for sex and then discarded,” Foster explained in the statement.

“I have been staggered by his lack of compassion towards Novy and how he says everyone is better off without her.

“There is a very dark element to the man which is unsettling. I have found myself mentally and physically drained from being around the man.

“I have no doubt that John has killed Novy. I have no doubt that he was telling the truth when he told me that he killed her, the way he killed her and why he killed her …”