Paul Charlton faces committal hearing accused of murdering his partner Joanne Howell

A TV singer who was killed in her home had made a tearful call the night before her death saying she was about to leave her partner.

A popular Melbourne singer allegedly beaten and strangled in her home by her lover had called a friend in tears the night before declaring she was leaving him because he was being “an absolute p---k” to her, a court has heard.

Paul Charlton, 67, is accused of killing Joanne Howell in her Hughesdale home on April 21, 2007.

He called Triple 0 on the night claiming he had returned from walking their dog to find her dead at the bottom of the stairwell.

It wasn’t until almost 14 years later, in January last year, that homicide detectives swooped on his Casterton property and charged him with murder.

Joanne Howell was killed in her Hughesdale home.

Mr Charlton faced the first day of a four-day hearing in Melbourne Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday where Magistrate Bernard FitzGerald is tasked with determining if there is sufficient evidence to order him to stand trial.

Ms Howell’s friend Rosalind MacDonald revealed Ms Howell had rang her the night before upset and wanting her and her husband Thomas’s help.

“When she first rang and asked us to come down she was crying,” Ms MacDonald told the court.

Ms Howell — who was known for her singing voice and performed on the ABC music show Countdown in the 1970s — wanted the pair to go to her house because she had asked Mr Charlton to move out.

“She just said he’d been an absolute prick to her, and she didn’t want to live with someone who was going to be like that,” Ms MacDonald said.

But after speaking for a while, Ms Howell no longer wanted them to go there.

“She said ‘no, I’m all right now, thank you’ and we didn’t go,” Ms MacDonald said.

“And that was the last conversation I had with her.”

The next day she was told Ms Howell was dead.

It was Mr MacDonald who had introduced the couple as he had earlier worked with Mr Charlton at a warehouse.

Mr MacDonald knew Ms Howell was having computer issues and sent Mr Charlton around to fix it in mid-2006.

He moved into her home within months, a move Ms MacDonald said she warned Ms Howell against.

“I just said to Jo, because his previous relationships had never worked because he didn’t have a steady job,” Ms MacDonald said.

Joanne Howell was found dead in 2007. Picture: Supplied

As friends and family of Ms Howell were called to give evidence, they each testified they had little doubt it was Mr Charlton who killed her.

“I couldn’t see that it could possibly be anyone else,” friend Claire Bamber told the court.

“Joanne didn’t have a lot of people who disliked her.

“We couldn’t believe it had happened to someone so sweet, who to me, didn’t have any enemies in the world.”

Asked by prosecutor Patrick Bourke, QC, why she thought Mr Charlton was responsible, she said: “Because their relationship had been so up and down, a little bit aggressive, a little violent.”

She described Ms Howell’s relationship with Mr Charlton as “full on”.

“One minute they were in love and the next minute they were fighting with blood noses and things,” she said.

“It was a very up and down situation. (Joanne) said he needed to see someone and that he had anger issues.”

Ms Howell’s daughter Tanya-Lee Stevenson, also known as “Tarnee”, also fingered Ms Charlton for the crime.

But she revealed police initially had two suspects: Mr Charlton and her mother’s previous boyfriend Mark Spiers.

“They were the people they were looking into,” Ms Stevenson said.

She said her mother was scared of Mr Spiers.

“He was quite a volatile man,” she said when asked questions by Mr Charlton’s defence lawyer Anna Dixon.

“He did get physical with mum. I only saw that happen once and then she broke up with him.

“He did harass and stalk her after that.”

She could not recall when police ruled out Mr Spiers as a suspect, but said she always suspected Mr Charlton was behind the killing.

Mr Charlton, who is on bail, appeared in the virtual hearing from a remote location.

He showed little reaction to the evidence being heard.

The hearing continues.