A judge has been urged to reject the lies of a handyman convicted over the savage killing of an elderly woman as he continues to deny any involvement in her death.
Stuart Paul Anderson was found guilty by a jury of the 2019 murder of Vicki Ramadan in her home at Sydenham, in Melbourne’s north-west.
The pair met when the widowed Ramadan knocked on Anderson’s door and asked for his help with some odd jobs around her home.
After her death, he told media in television interviews she seemed like a lovely lady and he hoped “the cops catch the son of a bitch” who did it.
But it was Anderson who killed Ramadan, between March 23 and 25, 2019, after witness accounts said they heard multiple arguments between the pair.
The 77-year-old was found dead inside her home from 13 blows by a torch, including four to the right side of her skull.
Anderson’s denials continued today during a pre-sentence hearing at the Supreme Court in Melbourne, where Justice Amanda Fox noted his lack of remorse over the killing.
“There is no remorse,” she said.
“Quite so,” Anderson’s barrister Tim Marsh replied.
Marsh said Anderson was not callous or indifferent to Ramadan’s death, but the judge attributed his reaction to Anderson’s belief that he was innocent.
“Anderson is aggrieved because people think he is capable of doing this,” he said.
“His explanation is, ‘I find this distressing because I didn’t do it’,” Justice Fox said.
Prosecutor Neill Hutton said Anderson was an unreliable witness and was sceptical over his recollection of being in a three-month coma when he was nine.
He urged Justice Fox to “reject anything that comes out of his mouth”.
“Lies come from his mouth time and time again, and when someone challenges his lies, he moves on to another,” Hutton said.
He said the crime was a serious example of a murder, in the context of a burglary gone wrong, and Ramadan was particularly vulnerable due to her age and health concerns.
“It’s common ground that an assault that occurs in somebody’s home is something that violates a very primal and significant belief in safety (and), on any assessment, this was a savage assault,” Hutton said.
Marsh said the crime was spontaneous compared to other murders, as Anderson thought Ramadan was not home at the time and he did not plan on killing her.
However, Hutton said spontaneity did not reduce the seriousness of the offence committed.
Anderson was convicted by a jury in his third trial, as one jury was discharged after being unable to reach a verdict and the second was discontinued before deliberations were reached.
The court was told Ramadan was known for wearing lots of jewellery, which was found alongside cash in her home after she was killed.
Anderson appeared by video link from prison and will be sentenced at a later date.