Ristevski’s web of lies to hide killing of his wife Karen

Borce Ristevski deceived family, friends and police after killing his wife Karen and dumping her body, a court has found.

Borce Ristevski arrives from a prison van to the Supreme court in Melbourne. Picture: David Crosling

Borce Ristevski deceived family, friends and police after killing his wife Karen and dumping her body in a forest north of Melbourne, but his intent to murder could not have been proved, the Victorian Supreme Court has found.

New details of the web of lies Ristevski constructed following his wife’s disappearance emerged when judge Christopher Beale yesterday released written reasons behind his decision last week that ultimately led to Ristevski pleading guilty to the lesser charge of manslaughter.

According to the brief, Ristevski had told the couple’s daughter, Sarah, not to trust police, and told his nephew he had organised Sarah’s boyfriend to buy new SIM cards for his mobile phone to avoid police tapping his calls. He told a female relative that it was not up to him “to clear his name”.

Ristevski, 55, pleaded guilty last Wednesday to his wife’s manslaughter on June 29, 2016.

The plea came after Justice Beale ruled that “while the evidence of post-offence conduct … could be relied on as evidence that the accused killed his wife, it could not be relied on to prove that the accused did so with murderous intent”.

The ruling also revealed that Mr Ristevski attacked police in several phone calls, telling his daughter, “they don’t give a f..k”.

According to phone records, he failed to call any family or friends to ask about his wife’s whereabouts in the days after she disappeared. His story about his activities on the day Karen disappeared also changed several times.

Ristevski told a friend he went to the northern Melbourne suburb of Lalor that morning, but didn’t tell police, telling the friend in the tapped call: “Make sure you don’t say anything … don’t let … tell ’em anything that I spoke to you about, nothing at all.”

In one version of the story he told police, he and his wife had ­argued about the sale of their clothing store business and she had gone upstairs to cool off, while in another he said she had immediately left the house through the front door. Another version had Ristevski claiming his wife had gone to the garage.

Ristevski told police at various points that he had spent the day doing bookwork, Uber driving, and also that he had driven his wife’s car to get petrol because the fuel gauge was faulty.

When a journalist rang to tell Ristevski that a body had been found at Mount Macedon, outside Melbourne, he said: “Well, it’s got nothing to do with me.”

Concerns about his conduct were also raised by Mrs Ristevski’s aunt Patricia Gray, including his unwillingness to provide information and his unco-operative behaviour. Ms Gray told police Ristevski had done very little to help police in finding his wife and would tend to go upstairs to his bedroom while “everyone else was putting out signs and searching”.

Justice Beale said he considered there to be “much force” in submissions from Ristevski’s lawyers David Hallowes SC and Sam Norton, who argued their client “feared that the unlawful killing of his wife would attract a substantial prison term and cause irreparable damage to his relationship with his daughter, with whom he was close”.

Ristevski faces a plea hearing next week.