Man admits killing Kiwi wife as trial approaches

An Australian man has has sensationally pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of his Kiwi wife ahead of his trial.

Borce Ristevski, 54, was set to face a long trial in the Supreme Court in Melbourne to fight accusations that he murdered his wife Karen, 47, pictured, but in a sudden development during a pre-trial hearing yesterday, he pleaded guilty to manslaughter.

He had been accused of murdering his wife at their Avondale Heights home on June 29, 2016, and dumping her body in bushland.

Ristevski had denied killing the dress shop owner, whose skeletal remains were found eight months later in Macedon Regional Park. An autopsy could not ascertain her cause of death.

After his wife vanished, Ristevski told police she had gone for a walk to clear her mind and never returned.

Ristevski, who was a pallbearer at his wife’s funeral, was charged with murder after an investigation that involved listening devices and CCTV footage analysis.

It is alleged that he took his wife’s Mercedes-Benz roadster to dispose of the body in bushland, killing the signal of his and her mobile phones on the way.

He then allegedly dumped her body between two logs and concealed it with branches before returning home.

During earlier court hearings, Ristevski’s lawyers had argued that the murder charge should be abandoned, and sought a pre-trial committal hearing on the lesser charge of manslaughter, because no jury could find there was murderous intent. But prosecutors pushed hard for a murder trial, saying Ristevski’s deceitful behaviours after the killing gave rise to the required intent.

They said the way he concealed the body and lied to family and police were not the actions of a man who had accidentally killed his wife.

The magistrate said the evidence was largely ‘‘circumstantial’’ but taken at its highest, the case was strong enough for a jury to convict him for murder.

In emotional testimony at the committal hearing, the couple’s daughter Sarah Ristevski said her father was never aggressive towards her mother.

The family’s troubled financial situation was aired. The Ristevskis had allegedly argued over money before the killing. – AAP