Stuart Anderson found guilty of elderly neighbour’s brutal murder

A man who brutally bashed his elderly neighbour to death, left her bloodied body to rot in her Sydenham home and then lied on national television has been found guilty of murder.

A man who brutally beat his elderly neighbour to death before spinning a web of lies has been found guilty of murder.

Stuart Anderson, 42, was on Thursday convicted of the murder of Vicki Ramadan, 77, who was found dead in the hallway of her Sydenham home in a “pool of blood” on April 6, 2019.

Anderson denied killing Ms Ramadan, arguing it was possible the old lady – known to wear expensive jewellery and carry cash – was killed by someone who broke into her home.

But a Supreme Court jury, after only one day of deliberations, unanimously agreed Anderson killed Ms Ramadan and left her to decompose on her hallway floor for days if not weeks.

Stuart Anderson murdered Ms Ramadan in 2019. Picture: A Current Affair

He remained seated in the dock as the 12-person jury returned its verdict.

“Guilty,” the foreperson said, as the convicted killer dropped his head to one side.

Wearing a black suit with a spotted tie, the freshly-minted murderer stared forward as Justice Amanda Fox excused the jury.

Anderson has spent years in custody waiting on a verdict, after his first trial last year ended in a hung jury and his second trial this year was aborted during the evidence of a witness.

In November, the third jury heard Anderson killed the widow in a “burglary gone wrong” sometime between March 23-27, 2019.

Crown prosecutor Neill Hutton said Ms Ramadan, dressed in a cream cardigan and black skirt, was “brutally beaten”, with an autopsy revealing she died after suffering multiple fractures to her skull, cheek and jaw.

“Blood had splattered against the walls and floor,” he said.

Several teeth were also found in the pool of blood, which had stained the carpet.

Mr Hutton said Anderson had met Ms Ramadan in March after she knocked on his door to ask whether he could complete some “odd jobs”.

He assembled some flat packs for her on March 23, but neighbours heard Anderson yelling while at her Marlborough Way home.

Vicki Ramadan was beaten to death inside her Sydenham home.

Two weeks later, Anderson told police he went to her property on April 6 at 9am to retrieve his tools when he discovered the back door broken and the woman dead.

“She’s lying on the hallway floor,” he told a triple-0 operator.

“I’ve got no idea how she died. I just know there’s blood everywhere.

“There’s blood all over the floor. There’s blood on the walls.

“I can definitely tell you she’s dead.”

But Mr Hutton convinced the jury this version of events was a “charade”.

The Crown prosecutor said Anderson was confronted by Ms Ramadan in late March as he attempted to steal items from her home, which led to him “assaulting” her with a blunt object.

Anderson was interviewed by a journalist from A Current Affair on April 16 while standing on the footpath near their homes in Melbourne’s northwest, where he repeated the same lies he had told detectives.

In the interview, which was played to the jury, Anderson described Ms Ramadan as a “very polite old lady”.

“She didn’t deserve this at all,” he told the journalist.

“I really hope to God that the cops catch the son of a bitch.

“I really do because she didn’t deserve this whatsoever.”

The murderer said her death was a “tragedy” and passed along his condolences to her loved ones, before urging anyone with information to contact Crime Stoppers to “help” police.

Ms Ramadan asked Anderson to complete some “odd jobs”.

Anderson admitted to detectives in August 2019 that he broke into her home on April 6 at 2am by “hip and shouldering” the back door because he wanted to retrieve his tools, but he maintained he had found Ms Ramadan dead.

However, Mr Hutton said this second version of events was also a “lie”.

One of Anderson’s mates gave evidence during the trial that Anderson told him in 2019 that Ms Ramadan had “expensive shit in her house” and he had thought about “stealing from her”.

But a day later, when they spoke again, he said Anderson “sounded stressed”.

“Stuart told me that he robbed the old lady last night and that he got busted,” he told police during their investigation.

A forensic expert also gave evidence that some DNA found on Ms Ramadan’s hands and clothing was highly likely to have come from the accused.

Anderson’s defence barrister Glenn Casement attempted to convince the jury his client was not Ms Ramadan’s murderer.

“Stuart Anderson finding the body and bringing it to the attention of authorities on April 6 makes no sense if he’s the killer,” he said.

Mr Casement conceded his client should have told detectives in April that he broke into Ms Ramadan’s house to fetch his tools, but he said his lies did not make him her killer.

However, the 12 jurors were not convinced someone else was behind the elderly lady’s cold-blooded murder.

Anderson will be sentenced by Justice Fox at a later date.