Court told of kill accused John Chardon’s lewd advance on missing wife’s friend

Following his wife’s disappearance, accused wife killer John Chardon went on a cleaning spree of his home, made lewd comments to his wife’s best friend and propositioned her for sex before flying to Indonesia.

Novy Chardon’s car was found near the Nerang train station about five days after she went missing.

FOLLOWING his wife’s disappearance, accused wife killer John Chardon went on a cleaning spree of his home, made lewd comments to his wife’s best friend and propositioned her for sex before flying to Indonesia.

Eerie details of what unfolded in the Chardon household in the days after Novy Chardon, 34, went missing six years ago were yesterday aired in the Supreme Court in Brisbane, where the 71-year-old is on trial for the woman’s murder.

The lubricant businessman has pleaded not guilty to killing Novy, who was last seen on February 6, 2013.

She has not used her bank accounts, left the country or seen a doctor since that date but her body has never been found, the court has heard.

Her car was found near the Nerang train station about five days after Novy went missing.

John Chardon told Frederika Wong when she arrived at the home looking for her missing friend that Novy never did anything around the house. Picture: AAP Image/Glenn Hunt

WET CARPET

It was yesterday revealed that Novy’s best friend, Frederika Wong, arrived at Chardon and Novy’s Upper Coomera home on the Gold Coast looking for the woman on February 7, 2013, after she didn’t turn up to a meeting with friends.

The court yesterday heard Chardon took her into Novy’s room, which was usually untidy and looked “proud”, telling her he had cleaned the carpet.

“When I went to the main bedroom it was very clean. John had obviously just finished cleaning the room because when I stepped into the room the carpet was still a bit wet,” Ms Wong said.

The court heard Chardon was a “clean freak” and told Ms Wong when she arrived at the home looking for her missing friend that Novy never did anything around the house.

“She’ll leave the dishes in the kitchen, lying there, messy, and she knows I will do them because I can’t stand the mess,” Ms Wong claimed Chardon had said to her.

When she asked Chardon where Novy was, he told her his wife had packed up and left, abandoning their children, the jury was yesterday told.

Another friend told the court he said Novy needed some time away.

Ms Wong said Chardon told her Novy had left the night before, packing all her “s***”.

“The children were saying mummy has left and I was saying to them: ‘Where is mummy?’ and Chanel was saying: ‘I don’t know she’s gone’,” Ms Wong said.

John Chardon arrives home this morning from his trip to Indonesia. Picture: David Clark

THE PROPOSITION

The court heard Chardon then asked Ms Wong if she wanted to take any of Novy’s designer handbags from the bedroom.

“He said I can chose any bags and I said: ‘No I don’t want any of that, it belongs to Novy,” she said.

He then allegedly asked his missing wife’s best friend if her husband made her “happy” before making a lewd proposition for sex.

“He said was she a good p***y licker?” Ms Wong said in evidence.

She told the court: “I didn’t know what to say and he said he could make me c** again and again”.

Ms Wong said she then told Chardon: “I have to leave now.”

Deborah Manduapessy told the court she had confronted Chardon about where his wife had gone in the days after her disappearance. Picture: AAP Image/Jono Searle

THE CONFRONTATION

During the second day of his murder trial, Novy’s friend Deborah Manduapessy told the court she had confronted Chardon about where his wife had gone in the days after her disappearance.

Ms Manduapessy, who reported Novy missing to police, told the court she phoned Chardon about Novy and he responded by abusing her.

“I asked John, I said: ‘Where is Novy?’ and he said: ‘She’s taken off and probably taken some time off to cool down and she’s left us’ and that’s what he said,” Ms Manduapessy told the court.

She told the court Chardon called his wife “evil” and “greedy” before launching into a verbal tirade, asking her: “What the f*** are you talking about?”

“Along the lines of you are overthinking, you are making an exaggeration,” she said.

Missing Gold Coast woman Novy Chardon on her wedding day with husband John.

OVERSEAS LIAISONS

Ms Manduapessy told the court Novy had told her Chardon was having sex with other women when he went to Indonesia, including “children” aged 16 and 17.

“Many times I asked her: ‘What do you see in him (Chardon) because you’re an intelligent woman, you know you’re beautiful’ and she genuinely, genuinely loved him and she did say he was a different man when she met him but it all changed,” Ms Manduapessy said in evidence.

The court also heard Novy told friends Chardon hired prostitutes in America and she had discovered emails between her husband and another woman that were “really the only type of emails that were between a man and a woman that were quite personal”.

“When he went abroad he would have girlfriends in the Philippines and when he went to America he had seen prostitutes,” Novy’s friend Jane Padden yesterday told the court.

Ms Wong said Chardon was “always rude and saying sexual things” and this was the reason he “doesn’t have any friends”.

Jane Padden leaves the Brisbane Supreme Court in Brisbane. Picture: AAP Image/Jono Searle

DV, GUNS AND ANXIETY

Around 2009, Novy began having panic attacks and was medicated for anxiety, the court heard.

“She was stressed that John was having an affair,” Ms Wong said in evidence.

Under cross-examination by Chardon’s defence barrister Tony Kimmins, Ms Wong conceded Novy “hated” Chardon because he phoned the police during an argument and allegedly had taken a DV order out against the woman.

“Johnny had called the police because she had broken an expensive vase when they were having an argument?” Mr Kimmins asked.

“Yes,” Ms Wong replied.

The court also heard Novy told friends John Chardon, pictured, hired prostitutes in America and she had discovered emails between her husband and another woman. Picture: Richard Gosling

The court has heard throughout the trial that Novy was worried after Chardon’s pistol went missing while she was overseas in January 2013.

She had told friends there was no sign of a break-in at the home but a gun safe had been taken from the garage.

The court heard police attended the home at the time.

The court heard Chardon left the Gold Coast for Indonesia on a business trip two days after Novy’s disappearance. The trial continues on Monday and is expected to run until next month.

Originally published as Court told of kill accused John Chardon’s lewd advance on missing wife’s friend