Peter Arthur testifies against wife Christine Lyons in Kelly case
A HUSBAND now says he acted under his wife’s instruction in the brutal murder of a Bendigo mum of four, despite earlier telling police he acted alone, a court has heard.
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A KILLER begged police to let his wife go after she dobbed him in for murder, saying he acted alone.
Now Peter Arthur is testifying against Christine Lyons in the Supreme Court saying he acted under her instruction.
Ms Lyons and co-accused Ronald Lyons, who are not related, have pleaded not guilty to murdering mother of four Samantha Kelly.
Arthur admits the January 2016 killing but says it came after the trio plotted for weeks about getting rid of the mum.
ACCUSED MURDERER CHRISTINE LYONS DESPERATE TO BE A MUM, COURT TOLD
But in a police record of interview played in court today Arthur told detectives he acted alone.
He had denied any involvement in Ms Kelly’s disappearance and murder until played a recording of Ms Lyons dobbing him in.
Arthur became frustrated, started crying, and begged police to let Ms Lyons go saying she had no role in the killing.
He told police that Ms Kelly was a heavy drug user who had tried to attack him, prompting him to act in self defence.
“She’s lashed out at me and I’ve then killed her,” he said.
“There was a struggle, I grabbed something and hit her over the head.”
Under cross-examination Arthur said those statements were both lies.
He has admitted perjuring himself and lying to police, media and courts following Ms Kelly’s death.
Defence counsel Peter Kilduff, for Ms Lyons, accused Arthur of “making it up as you go along”.
Arthur, who has spent almost two days testifying, has told the court Ms Lyons wanted Ms Kelly dead so she could take control of her children.
Arthur said his wife was desperate to have children but was unable to conceive and wanted to take control of Ms Kelly’s children.
The couple lived with Mr Lyons in Bendigo and rented a bungalow on the property to Ms Kelly and her four children.
The court heard the trio had repeatedly failed to fatally drug Ms Kelly by plying her with toxic cocktails of drugs and alcohol.
They decided to violently murder her instead, Arthur said.
He said he spent the night before the murder watching episodes of Walker, Texas Ranger on DVD while Christine Lyons played on her phone and Ronald Lyons played PlayStation.
While watching TV he said Ms Lyons came out her bedroom and told him: “Sooner or later Samantha’s gotta go.”
“Christine wanted the job done then and there. I wasn’t up for it at the time,” Arthur told the court.
“She said it was time to kill Samantha.”
Arthur said he and Mr Lyons picked out a hammer to use and planted it in the bedroom of Ms Kelly’s bungalow.
He said he drank about four cans of Jack Daniels immediately before the killing.
“After some drinks that was enough to get up the Dutch courage to go back out to the unit,” he said.
“Samantha had just came from the toilet, she asked to see her kids and I said no ... I walked into the bedroom and picked up the hammer.
“Then I walked back out to the lounge room where I struck Samantha ... in the head.”
Arthur re-enacted the hitting motion and said after Ms Kelly collapsed he hit her again.
“I don’t know what happened after that, I blacked out,” he said.
“I went back into the main house where Ronald and Christine were in the lounge room and I told Christine the job had been done.
“She turned around to Ronald and said ‘you go and make sure that Samantha is dead.
“Ronald got up out of his chair, walked out to the unit, he came back in and said ‘yes, you’re the mother of four children’.”
Arthur said Ms Lyons responded: “about time”.