Murdered Phillip Island mum Samantha Fraser was ‘living in constant fear’, court hears
Murdered Phillip Island mum Samantha Fraser had told a friend that her husband — who has been accused of her murder — had threatened to kill her and their kids, a court has heard.
Law & Order
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Slain mum Samantha Fraser lived in “fear and terror” of her husband and told a friend he had threatened to kill her and their kids, a court has heard.
Adrian Basham, 42, is charged with the murder of the mother-of-three whose body was discovered in her Seagrove Way, Cowes home on July 23, 2018 in a scene that initially appeared as a suicide.
Her close friend, Nadine Leed, told the Latrobe Valley Magistrates’ Court today that Ms Fraser, a psychologist, felt Mr Basham showed traits of a “dangerous person” and that she knew she was at risk by leaving him, according to Ms Leed.
“She felt he had began to unravel,” she said.
“She knew her life was at risk. She knew that by taking her power back and deciding to leave him that would cause him to retaliate in an aggressive and dangerous manner.”
Ms Leed said Ms Fraser told her he threatened to kill her, the kids and himself.
“That was her concern and fear.”
Ms Leeds also said the mum told her: “Adrian doesn’t love us. He just thinks we are his possessions.”
Ms Fraser feared surveillance cameras had been covertly installed in her home and that Mr Basham had bugged her phone, the court heard.
She was given a police-issued phone and had the locks to her home changed in 2017.
Ms Fraser’s mother, Janine Fraser, said her daughter “had to account for all her spending” to her money conscious husband.
“I would hear her say things like Adrian is going to be really mad at me for buying this,” she told the court.
The court heard Ms Fraser feared her husband did not provide adequate care to their kids and would sometimes appear inappropriately nude around family, including children.
On one occasion, he allegedly punched Ms Fraser in the arm when she asked him to slow the car, according to her mum.
The mum told the court Mr Basham tried to “bully” her into getting her first child tested in-utero for disabilities because he didn’t want an “abnormal” child.
Earlier the court heard Mr Basham was “manipulative” and “controlling” and triggered her into a “state of panic” when he returned from his remote workplace, a court has heard.
Ms Leed told the court Ms Fraser would spend several days making sure the family home, car and garden were immaculate prior to Mr Basham returning from his fly-in-fly-out job in Barrow Island, off the coast of Western Australia.
Ms Leed said Ms Fraser was a “bundle of nerves” and even made sure the jars in the cupboard “were facing outward so the labels could be read.”
“She was stressed in the days before he returned to the island. It seems like she couldn’t catch up or do anything because she had to clean the house, perform chores like getting the groceries,” she told the court.
“If she had gone to the supermarket and bought the wrong groceries or wrong crackers or didn’t get the cheese he liked then that wouldn’t be okay.”
Mr Basham, clean shaven and dressed in a suit, scoffed as the evidence was heard in the packed courtroom.
Ms Leed told the court Ms Fraser also kept a diary documenting her every appointment and who she spoke to each day and that she suspected this was driven “more by Adrian than Sam”.
Ms Fraser’s brother in law, Luke Henderson, told the court Ms Fraser at one point confided in him fears the relationship was abusive and that she was contemplating whether to leave Mr Basham.
“She said Adrian had backed her into a corner and intimidated her and she was scared of Adrian,” he told the court.
Following their second split in 2017, Ms Fraser had physically and mentally deteriorated, he said.
“Sam was breaking down mentally. When you’d hug her, she was shaking and always trembling,” he told the court.
“She was living in constant fear and had lost a dramatic amount of weight.”
Mr Henderson described Mr Basham as “controlling and manipulative” and would even remove the shoes from the feet of guests when they entered his home.
“He was very controlling. Everything needed to be a certain way.”
Ms Leed told police Mr Basham owned the black and blue striped jumper worn by a man captured on CCTV footage walking toward and away from Ms Fraser’s home about the time of her murder.
He had worn it on a Mt Hotham snow trip attended by both families in July 2016, she reported.
The information was crucial to his arrest.
The committal hearing continues.