Ristevski defence: Murder charge should be dropped

simply couldn’t support a murder conviction.

“We don’t make this submission on the basis that any witness’s evidence was particularly weak or couldn’t be believed,” he told Melbourne Magistrates Court yesterday.

“But that having regard to that evidence it would not be reasonably open for a jury to infer murderous intent.”

Mr Hallowes said there was no evidence suggesting Mr Ristevski’s relationship with his wife was ever violent or that he stood to gain from her death.

“There is nothing that speaks to this having any planning or premeditation. No life insurance policy. There is simply nothing there,” he said.

Mr Hallowes reiterated autopsy findings that could not pinpoint a cause of death.

He also drew comparisons with the murder case of Queensland wife-killer Gerard Baden-Clay, but said there were key differences.

Baden-Clay was found guilty of his wife Allison’s murder in 2014. The conviction was downgraded to manslaughter on appeal after law- yers argued it was possible he could have unintentionally killed his wife during an argument. The murder conviction was later reinstated by the High Court, which took into account Baden-Clay’s affair with another woman.

“One of the things they had in Baden-Clay was motive. He had an extramarital relationship,” Mr Hallowes said.

“There were lies told by Baden-Clay that were interrelated to the motive.” But no motive existed in the case against Mr Ristevski, Mr Hallowes argued.

A magistrate is hearing evidence to decide if Mr Ristevski stands trial for murder. The 54year-old allegedly killed his dress shop-owner wife, 47, at their Avondale Heights home on June 29, 2016 before dumping her body in the bush.

Ms Ristevski’s body was found between two logs at Macedon Regional Park northwest of Melbourne about eight months after she vanished. Mr Ristevski was charged after an investigation that involved phone taps, listening devices and CCTV footage collection and analysis.