By Adam Cooper
A man on trial accused of murdering his ex-wife admits he entered her home, waited for her to return and assaulted her, but he says she took her own life after he left.
Adrian Basham is accused of murdering Samantha Fraser in the garage of her Phillip Island home on July 23, 2018, after she returned from driving her three children to school and coffee with friends. Mr Basham, 45, has pleaded not guilty to murder.
Samantha Fraser.Credit: Nine News
Prosecutors allege Mr Basham parked his motorcycle near Ms Fraser’s Cowes home, waited about 90 minutes and was in the garage when she returned home after 11am.
Outlining the case to a Supreme Court jury on Wednesday, prosecutor Nanette Rogers, SC, said the evidence would show Mr Basham inflicted head injuries on his ex-wife and strangled her, then “manipulated” the crime scene to make it look like she killed herself.
“He arranged it to look like a suicide,” Dr Rogers said.
The jury was told the pair’s relationship had deteriorated and they separated at Easter 2017, and that in the years before her death Ms Fraser told friends, family, health professionals and police how she feared Mr Basham.
The 38-year-old psychologist also raised concerns her former husband was following her, conducting surveillance and tracking her movements with a phone app.
The jury was told a man in a blue hoodie was seen – by neighbours and on CCTV cameras – outside Ms Fraser’s house before she returned home, and the same man was later seen running from the house and riding a motorcycle away. Prosecutors allege that was Mr Basham.
Dr Rogers said the accused did not have facial injuries in the days before Ms Fraser’s death, but about the time police discovered her body after she failed to pick up the children from school, Mr Basham arrived at his father’s Gippsland home with a scratch on his nose. He told his father he must have suffered the scratch during his ride.
“The Crown says that the accused sustained the scratch to his nose when he assaulted and killed Samantha Fraser in the garage,” the prosecutor said.
Evidence would show it was likely Mr Basham’s DNA was under Ms Fraser’s fingernails, she said.
Adrian Basham. Credit: Facebook/AdrianBasham
Defence counsel Ashley Halphen said Mr Basham admitted breaching an intervention order when he entered his former partner’s home, that he was in the garage when she drove in, and that he caused her “non-fatal” injuries.
But “he categorically denies” killing her, Mr Halphen said, and “vehemently denied” allegations he was obsessive, controlling and aggressive while they were married.
“The issue, members of the jury, is whether or not Mr Basham’s actions went further and beyond causing those injuries,” the defence lawyer said. He urged the jury not to exclude the possibility Ms Fraser was alive when her ex-husband left her.
“Did Samantha Fraser suicide?” Mr Halphen said. “You will need to consider whether you can exclude suicide as a possibility. If you cannot, you must return a verdict of not guilty.”
Mr Halphen labelled the case a “whodunit” and said the defence argument had a “quite different ending” to what the prosecution alleged.
It was Ms Fraser’s birthday the day before she died, and the trial heard she celebrated with family and friends, and also sent a message to a man she had begun seeing. The message was positive and addressed the new chapter of her life.
Dr Rogers told the jury Ms Fraser had concerns about remarks Mr Basham made while they were together, including one comment when visitors were over: “You never know when someone will break into your house and do you harm.”
She also alleged he made the threat: “If I can’t have you, no one will.”
The prosecutor said Mr Basham had told his friends Ms Fraser had cheated on him and he would get her back. He allegedly told one: “Just you wait and see, I will get her.”
The jury will inspect Ms Fraser’s home on Thursday.
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