Remorseless killer Stuart Anderson continues to deny murdering elderly neighbour
A remorseless killer who murdered his elderly widowed neighbour in her Sydenham home then lied about it on A Current Affair continues to claim his innocence.
Police & Courts
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A remorseless killer is sticking by his fanciful story that he did not kill his elderly widowed neighbour in a burglary gone wrong.
Stuart Anderson, 43, was last year found guilty of the brutal murder of Vicki Ramadan, 77, at her Sydenham home in March 2019.
Trusted as a handyman by his victim, Anderson smashed his way into Ms Ramadan’s Marlborough Way home intending to steal valuables, but was disturbed by the elderly woman, who he had believed was interstate at the time.
A Supreme Court jury found the father-of-four brutally bashed Ms Ramadan with a “blunt object” before staging the discovery of her decomposed body days if not weeks later.
During his plea on Friday, the court heard Anderson continues to claim his innocence.
“It weighs heavily on me that people think I hurt an old lady like that,” Anderson said in a statement read in court.
“I’m f***ing shattered she died. I feel sorry for her family.”
His lawyer Tim Marsh conceded Anderson continues to deny responsibility for the killing but said he is not “callous” to Ms Ramadan’s death and did not plan to kill her.
“His denials of the offending continue. There is no remorse … but Mr Anderson is not callous or indifferent to the fact of Ms Ramadan’s death.
“What we have is a spontaneous and ill-considered decision to assault the victim in her house, resulting in her death.”
Justice Amanda Fox rejected Anderson’s acknowledgment of his victim’s death as a sign of remorse.
“I don’t accept that. That is not evidence of remorse,” Justice Fox said.
The court heard Ms Ramadan lived alone and was extremely security conscious but invited her killer into her home on March 23 to perform odd jobs.
It was here she was killed, suffering multiple blows to the skull, cheek and jaw.
The attack was so forceful her teeth were dislodged and blood splattered across the walls and floor.
On April 6, Anderson phoned police, saying he had entered Ms Ramadan’s home to retrieve his tools and discovered her body lying in a “pool of blood” in the hallway.
He later told an A Current Affair journalist he hoped “to God that the cops catch the son of a bitch”.
“I really do because she didn’t deserve this whatsoever,” he said at the time.
One of Anderson’s mates gave evidence during his trial that the handyman told him in 2019 that Ms Ramadan had “expensive shit in her house” and he had thought about “stealing from her”.
“Stuart told me that he robbed the old lady last night and that he got busted,” he told police during their investigation.
The court heard Anderson had a tough childhood.
Prosecutor Neill Hutton argued the killer’s “self-reported” claims of childhood deprivation should be carefully considered by Justice Fox given his willingness to lie.
“Lies have come from his mouth time and time again,” Mr Hutton said.
“When confronted with a lie, he merges his story.”
The court heard Anderson has a criminal history spanning several decades and states including Victoria, NSW and Queensland.
They included crimes of violence including making threats to kill.
Anderson has spent four years and seven months behind bars, and is considered a model prisoner.
Locked up in a protection unit at the Metropolitan Remand Centre, Anderson is a “peer educator” to others.
He has no contact with the outside world beyond his lawyers, with his children, aged 11 – 25, abandoning him and his ex-girlfriend dumping him in court after he was accused of murder.
Anderson will be sentenced at a later date.