Court to hand down Adrian Basham's sentence in February 2023

THE Melbourne Supreme Court, considering a sentence for the man who bashed and hanged Phillip Island mother or three, Samantha Fraser, has heard that the convicted man, Adrian Basham, 46, has had a hard time of it in prison.

Described by his defence counsel, Dermot Dann QC, while tendering prison report papers to the court this week, as a “marked man”, he said Mr Basham had spent much of his time in prison in protective custody as a result of assaults and threats from other inmates.

Despite this he claimed Mr Basham had demonstrated he was a good rehabilitation prospect, in part, because of the nine further education certificates he had completed while in prison, an opportunity that had been limited by his extended time in protective custody.

The pre-sentence hearing continued and concluded, before Justice Lesley Taylor, in the Melbourne Supreme Court on Friday, December 16 with Justice Taylor announcing, at the end of proceedings, that she would not be handing down a sentence until February 2023, due to the complex issues involved in the sentencing.

Crown Prosecutor Nanette Rogers SC, relying on evidence to the court and in line with her submission to the jury, submitted the efforts Mr Basham made to conceal his presence on Phillip Island, to lie in wait for his victim, his estranged wife Samantha Fraser, to come home from dropping the kids off at school on the morning of Monday, July 23, 2018, her bashing and ultimate hanging at the hands of Mr Basham, only seven days out from the start of a rape case against him, in which Ms Fraser had committed to giving evidence, was more than enough to put the crime into the worst category of murder, warranting a life sentence.

Mr Dann argued on Friday that there was little evidence Mr Basham had murdered his wife because she was due to give evidence against him, notwithstanding the proximity of the start of the rape case, at least raising reasonable doubt about premeditation.

“As terrible as this offending is, this is not a case deserving of life imprisonment,” he said at the beginning of his plea on Mr Basham’s behalf.

Mr Dann, recognised as a "preeminent" Criminal Law Senior Counsel and Court of Appeal specialist, spent much of the morning referring to witness statements, none of which he said referenced any comments by Mr Basham, that he intended to harm his wife ahead of the upcoming rape trial.

He said witnesses reported that Mr Basham was angry, principally about not being able to see his children, but also about the breakup, about his estranged wife in new relationships, about intervention orders and the cost of family court proceedings but not the impending rape case in which he professed his innocence.

Ms Rogers said later, however, that just because there was no evidence of Mr Basham verbalizing he was going to kill Ms Fraser (over the court case), doesn’t mean it wasn’t a motive.

Mr Dann made other submissions, on behalf of his client, as to why the offending wasn’t in the worst category of murder and why his client deserved leniency, while acknowledging his client still maintained his innocence.

“As terrible as this offence is, there are elements in this man’s life that does him credit,” Mr Dann claimed.

He said Mr Basham had no priors.

He posed no ongoing risk to the community because of the specific nature of the offending, and the likelihood of a long time in custody.

He had a strong work ethic.

Had previously been strongly involved in his children’s upbringing.

And had been involved in charitable efforts, referencing a “2015 Rally” which had raised $50,000 for cancer research.

Justice Taylor challenged Mr Dann about how he reconciled Mr Basham’s behaviour in public with what happened at home, where Mr Basham demonstrated controlling and abusive behaviour even after the couple separated.

Ms Taylor also asked how the offence was made better, if, and she didn’t necessarily accept that the proximity of the rape case wasn’t a key factor, the other issues including anger about exclusion from his children, were the main motivating factors.

Mr Dann said it added to the doubt around the motivation and premeditation, noting that it wasn’t clear whether Mr Basham knew if Ms Fraser was giving evidence or not.

Justice Taylor said that while the prosecution stressed the proximity of the start of the rape case as key motivation for the offending on July 23, 2018, their submission "wasn't as unsophisticated as that".

She said the court also needed to come to terms with the circumstances of the killing.

Ms Taylor said Mr Basham was responsible for the non-fatal injuries sustained by Ms Fraser when she was bashed by the offender, and it could not be ruled out that Ms Fraser was still alive when she was hanged by Mr Basham.

"There's no stepping away from the assault," said Mr Dann.

"It wasn't just an assault," Justice Taylor responded.

Mr Dann also addressed premeditation and claims the offending was “a cold-blooded, carefully planned execution”, saying the “planning” by Mr Basham could not have been worse.

He said he didn’t bring a weapon with him, rode a motorbike owned by his father, wore recognisable clothes and was in fact seen by a witness who had face-to-face contact with him.

The court has received victim impact statements from the family of the deceased woman, and others, and also up to a dozen references on Mr Basham’s behalf, from family members, friends and work colleagues expressing ongoing support.

Towards the end of his submission, Mr Dann provided three recent examples of sentences handed down for murder, including 19 years (14 minimum) for a 22-year-old who pleaded not guilty, 26 years/21 years for a man who pleaded guilty to a workplace murder, and 23 years/17 years for murder by stabbing where the offender pleaded guilty.

The minimum non-parole term for a life sentence in Victoria is 30 years.

Earlier, Mr Dann had provided details of Mr Basham's earlier life, saying he had attended Maralinga Primary School and Chandler High School in Keysborough where he had been bullied as a teenager. He won a scholarship to attend St Bedes Catholic College in Mentone where he excelled in environmental studies and biology. He completed a Bachelor degree at RMIT, and later a building apprenticeship, all the while working full time and part time in the construction sector and ultimately as a fly-in fly-out worker in the Western Australian oil and gas industry.

He married Samantha Fraser in March 2007 and lived on Phillip Island from 2009, separating in March 2017 and consenting to an intervention order in May 2017, and a final order on January 12, 2018.

He also noted that Mr Basham's mother had died in August 2019, after a failed operation, while he was in custody.