Appeal dismissed for Sharon Edwards’ husband, her killer

A man has made a last-ditch appeal against his conviction after he murdered his schoolteacher wife in a brutal incident that rocked the Clarence Valley.

Press conference at the Grafton Police Station about Sharon Edwards being missing, which has now become murder. Three sons are Josh [who spoke], Zac and Eli with their Dad John Edwards. Photo: Leigh Jensen / Daily Examiner April 1, 2015

A Clarence Valley man found guilty of killing his wife has lost his final appeal against his murder conviction over the brutal incident that left the Grafton community shattered.

John Edwards, 65, will continue to serve out his 24-year prison term for the 2015 murder of his wife, Sharon Edwards in Grafton.

His appeal in the Court of Criminal Appeal was founded on the argument the trial judge should have given the jury a greater opportunity to find a verdict of manslaughter.

The appeal is the latest development in what has been a distressing and extraordinary case, with no body, handbag or mobile phone ever found for missing Grafton teacher, Mrs Edwards.

The court revisited key evidence from the trial, including that Edwards provided “13 versions” of what had really happened the night Mrs Edwards disappeared, never to be seen again.

Among evidence in the appeal was an occasion where Edwards told his sons that “the police will find duct tape at home”, before telling one of his sons a year after Mrs Edwards that he “should have gone home”.

“Your mother would be alive if I went home,” Edwards was said to have said to his son in 2016.

The same son gave evidence in the murder trial, recounting a conversation with his father after his mother‘s disappearance which the court found could have constituted one of many versions of events with respect to Mrs Edwards’ death.

“...yeah he said, ‘He’d, like he’d snatched the iPad, he’d wrestled with her’...he had her hand pinned behind her back or her side and he slammed her on the floor and she hit her head and then she got up and went to bed‘,” the son told the court at the time.

“He said, ‘I should have just walked away, I should have just [walked] away’.”

In his judgment, Justice Hament Dhanji in the Court of Criminal Appeal stated that there was “no basis on which to think that this version, even if given as recounted by (the son), was other than an additional dishonest attempt to explain the death”.

The February 14 appeal by Edwards relied on the argument the trial judge should have directed the jury to the availability of a manslaughter verdict, and that the murder verdict was unreasonable and could not be supported with the available evidence.

Justice Dhanji found the grounds of appeal could not be established as the evidence indicated at least, that Edwards‘ assault of Mrs Edwards “involved an intention to inflict at least, really serious injury”.

“The possibility that the applicant struck the deceased with a blow sufficiently hard to break a bone in his hand suggests a level of force consistent with an intention to cause, at least, really serious injury,” Justice Dhanji said.

“Not seeking assistance and then disposing of the body suggest a disregard for the deceased, and point away from an intention to do something less than inflict really serious injury.”

Justice Dhanji therefore found the jury‘s verdict was not unreasonable and dismissed the appeal in agreement with Chief Justice Tom Bathurst and Justice Stephen Rothman.

TIMELINE: Still no trace of Sharon Edwards

The case gripped the Clarence Valley and the nation after Mrs Edwards’ disappearance on Saturday March 14, 2015.

John Wallace Edwards pleaded not guilty before a jury on October 30, 2019.

He was later found guilty and December 18 was sentenced to 24 years with a non-parole period of 18 years.