Sarah Ristevski stood by killer dad Borce to the end
The disappearance of Karen Ristevski gripped the nation — but it was her daughter’s staunch support for the man who the public and police had pegged as suspicious from the start that lured even more interest.
Law & Order
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Borce Ristevski’s daughter, Sarah, was by his side three years ago as he fronted the media on a frosty morning after the disappearance of his wife, Karen.
Sarah flinched and shook her head instinctively when Borce was grilled and quickly guided her father away from any more questions.
Today, she watched a live feed in a back room of the Supreme Court as her father was finally sentenced for killing Karen.
With a small group of supporters, she waited for almost two hours in the vain hope interest in this case might somehow subside, that she might walk down William St and leave this entire mess behind her.
WHAT DROVE BORCE RISTEVSKI TO KILL HIS WIFE?
KAREN’S BROTHER: ‘WE DIDN’T GET JUSTICE TODAY’
But when she finally made her exit, a media mob followed as if it had been her trial all along.
Sarah Ristevski had unwittingly become a protagonist in the kind of real life drama that delivered like a TV script.
The death of Karen Ristevski gripped the nation.
But it was her daughter’s staunch support for the man who the public and police had pegged as suspicious from the start that lured even more interest.
This was a story of a young woman who desperately wanted to believe that the man who carried her mother’s coffin was cruelled by grief, not guilt.
In a conversation bugged by investigators at their Avondale Heights home, Sarah peppered her father with questions.
The gaps in his story didn’t make sense but, to her, nor did his involvement.
Justice Christopher Beale conceded how difficult it had been for a daughter faced with such a web of lies.
In the hours after he had crammed his wife’s body into a boot and then dumped it in the bush, Borce Ristevski had managed to retain enough composure to convince Sarah her mother had fled in a huff.
Justice Beale said it was a road of deceit he continued down for more than three years, only admitting guilt when it appeared to suit his case.
“In the days, indeed months and years that followed you continued spinning your web of lies,” he said.
“Lying not only to your daughter but to extended family, friends, police and even the public in a media conference organised by the police missing person’s unit.”
Ristevski, he said, remained the keeper of secrets even at his wife’s funeral, where he was a pallbearer surrounded by loved ones who had been so desperate for answers.
As the earlier court proceedings had played out, Justice Beale had ruled it impossible to gauge if Ristevski’s post-offence conduct proved murderous intent.
But he said today the clearest fact remained: Ristevski continued to lie even as his house of cards collapsed.
READ SARAH RISTEVSKI’S GLOWING STATEMENT FOR DAD
BORCE FINALLY ADMITS THE TRUTH
“The pretence, the rank deceit only ended a few weeks ago when you pleaded guilty to manslaughter which carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison,” Justice Beale said.
In character references submitted to the court, Sarah Ristevski described her father as loving, caring, sympathetic and protective.
She said she felt lucky and hoped the love her parents had for each other and the marriage they shared was something she would one day replicate.
Perhaps that was something she may have found far harder than navigating the hallways of the Supreme Court and facing the flash of cameras.
That the man who she believed in could kill and keep it secret.