R v Boyle [2008] VSC 71

4 On the night of 6 October 1983, as the deceased lay (probably asleep) in the bedroom of your matrimonial home at Benga Avenue, Frankston, you used a .22 calibre weapon to shoot her in the head, thus ending her life at the young age of 30 years. Your two young daughters were in the next bedroom.

5 I am satisfied that underpinning the motive for the murder of the deceased was your relationship with Virginia Gissara and the effect that it had upon your marriage. However, I am not persuaded that the ultimate outcome of Virginia Gissara moving with her family to the matrimonial home was necessarily intended. What I am certain of is the fact that it was this relationship that ultimately led you to take the course you adopted.

6 Rather than admit your wrongdoing, you determined to construct a web of deceit and lies designed to deceive others into believing that the deceased had left you and run off with another man.

7 After shooting your wife, you placed her body into a bag and put it in the back of your van. You then forged a note so that it would appear that she had decamped. You waited for your children to awake and told them that she had gone. Shortly thereafter, your brother-in-law, Tom Turner, arrived at your home and you gave him the note that you had forged relating to the deceased's disappearance.

8 That day, you went to see Virginia Gissara and provided her with the same fictitious account. That night, you both spent the night together at a motel, while your children stayed with your sister, Mavis Ball.

9 Within several days, you had placed the remains of the deceased still within the bag in a metal drum, which you then sealed with levelling compound. You removed the drum from the van and then kept it at your premises.

10 You and Virginia Gissara cohabited from 7 October onwards. By Sunday 9 October, three days after Edwina's death, your two children and Virginia Gissara and her three children were living together at Benga Avenue.

11 Over the ensuing 23 years you continually lied and dissembled to friends, relatives, acquaintances and the police as to the deceased's alleged disappearance.

12 In furtherance of the plan you devised immediately after the deceased's murder, you concocted the following stories:-

(a) That the deceased had run off with another man - a truckie, Ray.

(b) That the deceased had left a note saying that she was leaving with another man to go interstate, that she no longer loved you and that you were to keep Careesa skating.

(c) That the deceased had been seen in other places and was still alive.

(d) That the drum in which you placed her body contained toxic carpet glue.

13 In addition to family members in Australia you gave the account as to her disappearance to many others, including:-

(a) The police, Sergeant Stewart, the first policeman to interview you in November 1983 who you told that the deceased had left and run away with the truck driver and had taken clothing and $400 in cash. You repeated this fabrication when interviewed in March 1992 by Detective Sergeant Wilson - you also told him that you believed Edwina was still alive.

(b) Your sister-in-law, Rosemary, in Wales to whom you wrote in December 1983 (Exhibit P8) telling her, amongst other things, that "Edwina took off with another guy, she has been planning this for some time", that her plan was "a well thought out plan"; "I got up for work on Thursday morning to find a letter on the table and $400 dollars cash gone from the bedroom. In the letter she told me that she didn't love me anymore and hasn't for a long time, she also said that she was leaving the kids with me as they were better off with me"; "The part that really gets to me the most is the two kids it's been a month now since they have seen or heard from their mother and for that I'll never forgive her. How do you explain to two kids that not only does their mother not only no longer love their dad, but she doesn't give a stuff for them either"; "I have no idea who the guy is and all the people I've spoken to are just as shocked as I was"; "I don't know where she is either although I've tried to find out for all I know she could be overseas by now"; "I'm stuffed if I know but for what ever reason she has for going, why has she totally rejected the kids I can't understand that part at all"; "If you have already heard from her, please ask her to write to the kids". The letter was written by you and signed "Fred, Careesa and Sharon".

14 I regard your decision within hours of the death of your wife to embark upon a plan of deceit and dissembling about the disappearance of the deceased - your devoted wife and the mother of your two children - as a significant aggravating factor. I am satisfied that the law requires me to take these actions into account. [1]

15 You moved house on several occasions between 1983 and 2006. The drum containing your wife's remains accompanied you on each of your changes of address.

16 In September of 2006, your son-in-law, Michael Hegarty, cleared up the backyard of your family home. He cut open the drum and later, on 13 October 2006, found the remains of the deceased. But for this fortuitous circumstance, your murderous actions would have gone undiscovered.

17 I also regard the manner in which you dealt with your wife's remains as an aggravating factor, although I take into account that this seems to have been part of your plan to avoid detection for her murder and as such should not be doubly counted against you.

18 I cannot be satisfied to the required standard that your actions in murdering your wife were part of some premeditated plan. The evidence does not permit such a conclusion. However, what is clear is that your actions were patently deliberate in shooting her through the head using a lethal weapon and that such actions took place at your marital home.

19 You were born in Cardiff in Wales in March 1949 and were the tenth child of twelve children. You have just turned 58 years of age.

20 You had met the deceased in Wales and you were married on 26 February 1972. Shortly thereafter, on 3 June, you moved to Australia and in early August Careesa was born. Sharon, your second daughter, was born in 1975. Your family lived at a variety of premises in the Dandenong region in the seventies and early eighties. In 1982 the family moved to Benga Avenue and, as I have said, both you and the deceased worked industriously.

21 After the death of Edwina, you and Virginia Gissara lived together for five years, although the evidence of Sharon and Careesa made it clear that it was a particularly unhappy time for them.

22 After your relationship with Virginia Gissara ended, you raised your two daughters and continued to work in the carpet industry. You developed health problems (which I will refer to in a moment) but continued to work carrying out subcontracting carpet work and, prior to your arrest, working as a courier. At the time of your arrest in October 2006, you were living at the family home in Dennis Court, Carrum Downs with your daughter, Careesa, and her husband, Michael, although their relationship was in the process of dissolving.

23 I have been provided with a report from your general practitioner, Dr Colin Madeley, concerning your medical history. In February of 2003 you were diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes. You suffer from hypertension and intermittent depression. Your diabetic condition has a complication which has led to mild kidney damage. You need regular management of your blood sugar levels and your condition can be controlled by a combination of medication, a healthy diet and regular exercise. You will need regular medical attention whilst in gaol to prevent any debilitation as a result of your diabetic condition.

24 Incarceration may, according to Dr Madeley, "have an impact on these issues". If healthy eating and exercise are limited or precluded, the consequences of poor control may include blindness, vascular disease and/or renal failure. I accept that your health may suffer in gaol and that your longevity may be reduced.

25 I have taken your age and your health into account in determining the appropriate sentence.

26 You have no prior convictions and it was accepted by the Crown that you are not a person who would be at risk of re-offending. In the course of her comprehensive and helpful plea on your behalf, Ms Dixon informed me that you have become active in assisting in educational roles in the prison and that you have assisted in counselling other prisoners. I have also taken these matters into account.

27 The Court has been provided with a Victim Impact Statement of Valerie Ada Bordley, the deceased's sister. Mrs Bordley relates the trauma suffered by her family in Wales as a result of the deceased's alleged disappearance. In December 1983 you phoned and then wrote the letter to Edwina's sister, Rosemary, that I have already mentioned. This was a "bombshell" to your wife's family. Your story, concocted to deflect attention from yourself as the murderer, was devastating to her family, and particularly to her mother, who apparently accepted your farrago that Edwina had run off. Your sister-in-law, Mrs Bordley, was emotionally and financially committed to discovering whether Edwina had, in fact, run off or whether the explanation for her disappearance was more sinister. She, understandably, is traumatised by the fact that, for 23 years, the remains of her sister lay in a metal drum in your possession. According to her, the Welsh side of the family has been destroyed due to your actions and lies. I take these matters into account in determining your sentence.

28 These significant matters, however, need to be balanced against the views of your children, Careesa and Sharon. I have read two statements provided by them and tendered on your behalf. Neither accepts the verdict of the jury. Each of them attests to your devotion as a father and grandfather and their love for you, despite the jury verdict. Each wish you to have the opportunity, at some point of time, to see your grandchildren outside of gaol. Each says that you have been a caring and devoted father through thick and thin.

29 To some extent, their devotion to you needs to be considered in light of the fact that, for practical purposes, for much of their respective lives they have not had a mother - she being removed by your actions and her memory erased by your fiction. Nevertheless, I accept and take into account that you have been a caring and devoted father to them, and that there are other sides to your character which the actions which I have recited above would not imply.

30 Despite your evidence that you still love your wife, your actions demonstrate the falsity of this position. You have shown no remorse whatsoever; rather, you have sought to live a lie, with the sole aim of avoiding apprehension for your dastardly actions. Your letter in December 1983 to your sister-in-law contradicts any love and affection for your wife, as does your false statement to the police in 1992 about her asserted infidelity. These statements were anything but a profession of love; they were a denigration of the character of a faithful and devoted wife and loving mother who met her death at your hands. I do not accept that you have any remorse for the murder of the deceased and discount this as a mitigating factor.

31 I have taken into account in fixing the appropriate sentence the provisions of Part 2 of the Sentencing Act. I declare that 522 days is the period of pre-sentence detention. I direct that be recorded.

32 In determining the appropriate sentence, I have taken into account those aggravating and mitigating factors I have already referred to.

33 I have also taken into account the following important matters.

34 Firstly, the denunciation of your conduct and, in particular, public condemnation of the intentional taking by you of the life of Edwina Boyle. Secondly, the imposition of a just punishment for your actions and the vindication of the rights of Edwina Boyle. Finally, I have kept firmly in mind that the principle of general deterrence is of real significance in determining the appropriate sentence.

35 For the murder of Edwina Boyle I impose a sentence of 21 years imprisonment. I fix a non-parole period of 17 years.

[1] See DPP v England [1999] VSCA 95; [1999] 2 VR 258.