Borce Ristevski moved out of maximum security prison

Wife killer Borce Ristevski has been transferred to a medium-security prison in Ararat, it can be revealed.

Borce Ristevski has been moved from maximum security prison.

EXCLUSIVE: Wife killer Borce Ristevski has been moved out of maximum security prison, it can be revealed.

It is believed Ristevski, 56, has recently transferred to medium security Hopkins Correctional Centre in Ararat.

Ristevski was found guilty of the 2016 manslaughter of his wife Karen in their Avondale Heights home and is serving a 13 year sentence for the crime.

Sources said the security downgrade was not unusual and inmates were often moved around prisons while serving their time.

When asked for comment, the Department of Justice and Community Safety said: “Corrections Victoria does not comment on individual prisoners.”

A number of factors would have been taken into account in assessing Ristevski for a move out of maximum security.

They would have included his behaviour since being incarcerated, whether he is a threat to staff and other prisoners and whether he is a security risk.

Prison sources say he has been compliant and cooperative in his first three years behind bars.

Ristevski’s time inside has been incident-free, apart from being assaulted on his first day in custody at the Melbourne Assessment Prison in December, 2017.

Karen Ristevski with husband Borce and daughter Sarah.

The Hopkins Correctional Centre has a capacity of 762 prisoners and is focused on reintegration programs and educational and workplace opportunities.

Those capable are employed full-time in making everything from number plates to wood products, as well as laundry and kitchen work.

It has traditionally housed a high number of sex offenders and has been a destination for jailed corrupt police.

For more than two years Ristevski played the role of an anguished husband desperate to find his missing wife Karen, the woman he had killed and dumped.

He reported her as missing, telling police she walked out of their home to cool off after they had a fight about finances relating to her fashion store.

He continued with this version of events while detectives built their case against him, following his every move.

The charade persisted when Mrs Ristevski’s badly decomposed body was found eight months later, wedged between tree trunks and covered with shrubbery at Mt Macedon.

To this day, Ristevski has not revealed how he killed his wife of 27 years.

His earliest release year is 2027.