Rebecca Payne hailed a hero by Walpeup locals for murdering ‘monster’

Rebecca Payne killed her husband with a poison biscuit in a crime that shocked Victoria – but now residents are speaking out saying she may have saved other people’s lives.

Rebecca Payne is due to be sentenced for murdering her husband. Picture: Mark Scott

Rebecca Payne killed her husband with the help of a little lemon biscuit laced with poison.

But despite a jury finding her guilty of murder, locals living in the tiny town of Walpeup have hailed her a hero.

They believe that by ending his life, Rebecca has saved countless others.

“They should be giving her a medal for saving the lives of people in Walpeup,’’ her friend and local resident John Lovitt told the Herald Sun, with tears in his eyes.

But to tell her tale, the clock must be wound back 14 years to when Rebecca was whisked to the town with a population of only 170 by her new husband, Noel.

One of the smallest townships in the state, tourists passing through will find only a service station and general store.

Kids cannot attend the derelict primary school because it was de-staffed last decade.

And thirsty locals have to drive out of town for a pint at a pub.

“Small towns die,” one resident remarks.

Rebecca Payne has been hailed a hero for killing her abusive husband Noel Payne. Picture: Mark Scott

But, for Noel, it was the perfect place to isolate his new wife from everyone and everything.

“She lived for 14 years in hell with a monster,” one of Rebecca’s adult sons, Jamie, says.

During her Supreme Court trial, Rebecca took the stand to detail the shocking verbal, physical and sexual abuse she suffered at the hands of her husband.

Noel would brutally rape her “whenever he felt like it”, control her every move and beat her frequently, the 43-year-old said.

He even had her fired from her part-time job at a shop in nearby Ouyen because his behaviour would frighten customers.

“Noel would sit in this shop and if someone spoke to her and he didn’t like it, he threw them out,” resident Louise Lovitt told the Herald Sun.

The cops, according to another local, had an adage for him: “Payne by name, pain by nature.”

Rebecca also told the court how Noel coerced her into getting 18 tattoos of his name all over her body – some visible across the courtroom – so no one else could ever “love her”.

But one woman was not enough for Noel, so he led another into his house of horrors.

Noel Payne was killed by his wife Rebecca Payne in September 2020. Picture: Facebook

When Rebecca fled the relationship in 2012 and sought refuge at a shelter, Noel moved a younger woman with an intellectual disability into the home.

Rebecca soon felt compelled to return because he threatened to harm their two children as “punishment for me leaving”, she told the jury.

However, despite her return, Noel refused to break up with his new girlfriend.

Instead, for years he is said to have subjected both women to “cult-like” exploitation and abuse too graphic to detail.

It prompted defence lawyer Richard Edney to describe him as a “domestic terrorist”.

The Walpeup kitchen where Rebecca Payne laced a biscuit with poison.

But by September 2020, Rebecca could take it no longer.

The jury heard how one afternoon as a batch of biscuits baked in the oven, she crushed more than seven of her sleeping pills with a mortar and pestle.

She tipped the poisonous powder into the piping bag before she iced the biscuits.

Hours later, she handed the deadly biscuit to an unwitting Noel with his hot cup of Milo.

Prosecutor David Glynn told the jury that after he had passed out, she wrapped his body in a blanket and stashed him away in an empty chest freezer out back.

Finally, she tied the lid down with straps, ensuring the 68-year-old had “no chance of escape”.

Rebecca was arrested three days later when a neighbour discovered Noel’s rotting body, although medical experts were not able to conclude whether he died from a drug overdose or suffocation.

The town of Walpeup has a population of only 170. Picture: Supplied

She has remained in custody since.

At trial, Rebecca admitted killing her husband, but said it was an accident and pleaded guilty to manslaughter.

“I gave him the pills to knock him out for a while, so he could have a good sleep and I wouldn’t cop the abuse,” she told the jury.

She then claimed she went into “panic mode” when she found his unconscious body, prompting her to hide him away.

But in March, after a three-week trial, the 12 jurors rejected her story, finding she intended to kill her husband.

Standing on the rickety deck of his home, John says he fears his friend Rebecca – who will face a pre-sentence hearing on Monday – will have to spend more time behind bars.

“It’s not fair,” he adds. “She’s the victim.”

The elderly man, who lived down the road from the Payne household, insists Noel was plotting to kill her.

“There’s not a doubt in the world,” he says.

But he is also certain she was not his only “target”.

“She saved at least four lives,” he says, referring to Rebecca, her children and the other woman.

Rebecca Payne was found guilty of the murder of her husband Noel Payne by a Supreme Court jury. Picture: Supplied

“She didn’t know whether she was going to go to bed and wake up the next morning.

“Or whether her boys were going to go to bed and wake up the next morning.”

And tragically, Rebecca knows all too well the agony of losing a son.

Her eldest child, Jayden, who she welcomed into the world with a previous partner, was senselessly killed by two thugs in 2017.

Sitting on an old park bench across from the Walpeup general store, Jamie says he grieves not only the loss of his older brother, but the time they lost with their mum.

“We would have been a family if Noel wasn’t around,” he tells the Herald Sun.

“But he didn’t want her to have contact with us.

“If I knew what was happening in that house though, I would have been straight over here.”

Jamie, who lived interstate but moved to Walpeup to care for Rebecca and Noel’s two teenage children, does not believe his mum is a murderer.

“I think she didn’t mean to do it. I think she wanted peace,” he says.

“She didn’t want to be sexually assaulted that night.”

Noel Payne in 2012, eight years before he was killed by his wife Rebecca Payne in September 2020. Picture: Facebook

But he also knows his mum would do anything to protect her children – something she would be unable to do if she was six feet under in the eerie Walpeup cemetery.

And Jennie Whitehouse, who lived next door to the Paynes, does not doubt Rebecca’s life was in danger.

“I think he was trying to work out how to kill her and get away with it,” she says.

Believing the same, Jamie completely rejects the characterisation of his mother as a “Cookie Monster”.

“He was the monster,” he retorts.

The Walpeup pantry where Rebecca Payne crushed up her sleeping pills with a mortar and pestle.

The 23-year-old has now set up a GoFundMe so he can support himself, two teenagers and a mum behind bars.

But he holds out hope the judge will consider all factors in Rebecca’s favour when sentencing her.

“She spent 14 years in jail with him in that house,” he says.

“She’s done her time.

“The kids need her. The community needs her. We all need her.”

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