He explained to Ms Hearn that "she [the deceased] was sticking her nose in where it wasn't wanted".
44 During the intercepted telephone conversation with Karen Bugeja on 23 December 1999, the prisoner told Ms Bugeja that he put his hands around the deceased's neck and said……… "it was fun" and he "enjoyed it". No mention was made during these conversations by the prisoner that the deceased had placed guns in his hands and had threatened his children.
45 The prisoner's assertion that the deceased had blackmailed him by the threat of disclosing the pornographic film of sexual intercourse between them when she was aged 15 to police is not of recent invention. As mentioned previously, evidence was given of the blackmail at the sentencing hearing in 1991. The journalists, Mr Byrne and Ms Paterson, were also given accounts of the blackmail.
46 It appears, however, that the prisoner's focus upon the deceased's asserted misconduct has enlarged over the years.
47 During the sentencing proceedings in the District Court, the deceased's blackmail was not his sole complaint. He testified that his former wife and stepsister Marea had also blackmailed him. His wife was saying that she would take the children from him and he would never see them again. Marea suggested that she would have him up on a rape charge claiming that he had raped her. He told the Court that he had no quarrel with his stepsisters but was disappointed they had helped his wife.
48 It is appropriate to observe that in a statement dated 24 March 1997, Kelly Van Der Schoot recalled the prisoner being involved in an armed robbery at Granville Railway Station. She said she had nothing at all to do with [the robbery] and the prisoner never told her anything about it. She recounts (at para 15):
"However, when he got out of gaol after doing the 9 months, he tried to blackmail me by coming around to our house in St Marys and showing me a letter in which he said he was going to tell the police that me, Margaret and Marea were all involved in the armed robbery. I never took Gareth back and he ended up going back into gaol on that charge."
49 Ms Van Der Schoot said that whilst the prisoner was in gaol, she was interviewed by Blacktown Detectives at the police station about the armed robbery in, it appears, 1992. The detectives rang her back later and told her she had been cleared. She was not aware if the deceased or Marea were interviewed.
50 During the recorded conversations in Brisbane with the journalists the prisoner related that the deceased had "blown the whistle" on him and his brother for the offence of larceny by a servant for which he served nine months in prison. He told this Court that the deceased, he understood, had something to do with concocting the evidence that led to his conviction for a charge of sexual assault upon a young girl.
51 As was said by Dr Westmore, the prisoner's personality included an obsessiveness and an inability to move on. He had, it seems, a pre-occupation about what he understood to be the deceased's misconduct towards him and an inability to resolve the conflict by lawful means.
52 The prisoner had a motive to kill the deceased before the day of the murder. He had, I am satisfied, the belief that the deceased had ruined his life. He related to Mr Byrne he "had waited for revenge", and to Ms Paterson that he "….got a ……needle out of my bum that was annoying the shit out of me for many years, and I pulled it out."
53 The statements made to the journalists of his prior intent to kill were not exaggerations but were the truth. I do not accept the prisoner's evidence that he formed the intent to kill after he arrived at the home. Without dilating further on the evidence, I reject the prisoner's assertions that the deceased placed guns in his hands and threatened his children. I do not accept that the deceased wanted him to do an armed robbery and to commit murder. These assertions, I conclude, were made by the prisoner in order to justify his criminality.
54 I am satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that the only rational inference to be drawn from the prisoner's motive, his attendance at the deceased's home with the video camera and the rope without the video tape, the statements made to the journalists, to Ms Hearn, Ms Wallwork and Ms Bugeja is that the prisoner had formed the intent to kill the deceased before he travelled to Warrimoo on the day of the murder.
55 The murder had been carefully planned. The bondage video was to be used as a ruse to place the deceased in a vulnerable position when she could be strangled by the technique which decreased the possibility of detection.
56 I have taken into account the prisoner's careful planning of the killing as an objective factor increasing the seriousness of the offence and not as an aggravating factor under s 21A(2)(n) of the Crimes (Sentencing Procedure) Act 1999 (the Crimes (SP) Act).
Did the prisoner write the letter?
57 As previously mentioned the deceased received an anonymous letter which advised that her "joint investment is due to be realised on Friday 23 April 1993". The value of the investment was stated to be $876,954.89. The money could not be retrieved unless the author had "all five passwords". The letter was typed.
58 The Crown contends that the prisoner wrote the letter. As the authorship of the letter is relevant to the issue of the murder being planned rather than as a reaction to threats made by the deceased on the day of the murder, the onus of proof is on the Crown beyond reasonable doubt.
59 During his testimony, the prisoner denied he was the author of the letter. He said it was typewritten and he had not used a typewriter since he was 16. He said he had a recollection of the letter but had not read it. The deceased at a birthday party had shown it to him and said "we can make some money from this, you come to my place and make another video" to which he said "yeah".
60 The Crown relies upon the following circumstances to prove that the prisoner wrote the letter:
(i) the conversation between the prisoner and Mr Byrne on 4 October 2005;
(ii) the contextual similarity between the letter received by the deceased and a letter he wrote to Kelly Van Der Schoot whilst he was in prison in 1989, 1990;
(iii) the conversation between the prisoner and Mr Andrew Byrne on 11 October 2005;
(iv) the conversation between the deceased and Corrina Ann Aitken which was overheard by Cheryl Wade.
61 During the conversation on 4 October 2005, Mr Byrne said to the prisoner:
"Come on Gareth no secrets now. Who else but you would have sent this letter, there was no one else to gain from it. It was you wasn't it". To which the prisoner replied, "Yes".