A MAN killed his de
facto because she was getting in the way of his pedophilic activities, a
court heard yesterday.
Thomas Keith Halliday, 45, is accused of killing Shelley Joy
Stephenson at his Merbein West home on March 2.
The Supreme Court heard police believed he put Ms Stephenson's body in
an old hot water service, filled it with crushed rock and dumped it in the
Murray River.
Mr Halliday was the last person to see Ms Stephenson, 33, alive. Her
body has not been found.
The court heard Mr Halliday was alleged to have taken part in sex acts
with children in the area.
Prosecutor Jeremy Rapke, QC, said Mr Halliday had a dark motive to get
rid of Ms Stephenson so he could continue his predatory conduct.
"This may come to be one of the most troubling murder cases of recent
times," he said.
"There is a strong circumstantial case that this man's involvement in
the murder of his de facto partner was for the purpose of continuing his
pedophilic activities."
Mr Halliday is charged with murder and sex offences against children,
including rape.
Mr Rapke said the accused had mused about killing his partner and
borrowed a trailer around the time she vanished.
He said Mr Halliday gave police a series of inconsistent statements
about his movements on the day Ms Stephenson went missing.
Mr Halliday told police during a record of interview he had blacked
out that day and couldn't remember what happened.
"When he was questioned in the interview about his activities on the
day the deceased went missing his final position was not one of denial . . .
but one in which he ascertained there was a period of time on that day when
he can't account for his movements," Mr Rapke said. "The Crown would say
this is just laughable."
Defence lawyer Florian Andrighetto said his client should be bailed
because the case against him was weak, his home was being looted in his
absence and he suffered chronic back pain.
Mr Andrighetto said Ms Stephenson had been known to go walkabout and
had sought psychiatric help in the past.
Justice Kevin Bell denied Mr Halliday bail and remanded him for a
preliminary hearing in March.
THE parents of a murdered woman yesterday pleaded with her
killer to reveal where he dumped the body.
On the eve of his sentencing, the elderly couple said they just
wanted a proper burial for their daughter.
The dead woman's three children have even chosen a headstone so she can
finally be laid to rest.
But Thomas Keith Halliday, 46, refuses to give up his macabre
secret.
A Supreme Court jury last month found the Mildura delivery driver
guilty of murdering Shelley Joy Stephenson.
His plea hearing begins in Mildura on Wednesday and he is expected
to be sentenced on Friday.
Police accused him of killing Ms Stephenson by strangling her or a
karate chop to the throat.
They allege he jammed her body into a disused hot water service
cylinder which he then packed with gravel and dumped in the Murray
River.
Asked in his record of interview with police if he killed Ms
Stephenson, Halliday replied: "I can't say I did . . . and I can't say I
didn't."
Her family now lives in hope Halliday will end their torment and
reveal where he hid her body.
"Tell the kids where their mother is," mother Lynette Stephenson
pleaded.
"Tell us where our youngest girl is. Tell us so we can give her
the decent burial she deserves. Everybody deserves to be buried
properly."
Police have dragged the river for her remains without success. The
Stephenson family have also searched the banks of the Murray.
"The river's a big place. It's dropped a fair bit, but you never
know . . ." Shelley's father John said.
Ms Stephenson was last seen in Mildura early on March 2, 2006.
Halliday reported her missing five days later at his local police
station in Merbein West, 15km west of Mildura.
Ten weeks later detectives from the homicide squad's missing
person unit were called in to investigate her suspicious disappearance.
At the time Ms Stephenson, 34, was estranged from Halliday. She
had fled his home with her two young daughters, Sarah, 11, and
10-year-old Christie, to live in Mildura.
Her son Michael, 9, had been living with her parents for the
previous 12 months.
It was her fourth attempt to leave Halliday.
Lynette Stephenson said Halliday controlled her daughter and the
children through abuse and violence.
"I honestly believe they won't find her. He has to tell them," she
said.
"She's got a little girl who wants to find mum and go to the
coffin shop and buy her a coffin. She wants a heart-shaped head stone
for her mum. She's picked one out.
"It's been too hard to bear, so we put a plaque on my parents'
grave in Red Cliffs and we go there on Shelley's birthday and we let
balloons go. We do it for the kids, it makes them feel good.
"Sarah has bought her an angel, because Shelley's up there with
the angels."
Lynette and John Stephenson, 64, now care for the three children.
Mr Stephenson said his grandson had endured psychological torment
and physical violence from Halliday.
Mrs Stephenson said her daughter knew Halliday for eight years
before their relationship started.
He was a volunteer bus driver for the support group "Homemakers"
that Shelley attended as a single mother.
"It's just not fair. She didn't deserve any of it," her mother
said.
"All she needed was a good man. She was just used and abused."
Man jailed over murder
October 14, 2010 - 4:34PM
AAP
A Victorian man convicted of murdering his estranged partner
and disposing of her body in a hot water cylinder has been jailed
for 32 years.
A Victorian Supreme Court jury sitting in Mildura found Thomas
Halliday guilty of murdering his former de facto wife, Shelley Joy
Stephenson, who disappeared on March 2, 2006.
Her body has never been found.
The jury was told Halliday killed Ms Stephenson and then
placed her body in a disused hot water cylinder, which he filled
with gravel and dumped in the Murray River.
At a Mildura sitting of the Supreme Court on Thursday, Justice
Elizabeth Hollingworth jailed Halliday for a minimum 24 years.
The sentence takes into account convictions Halliday received
for other offences that are subject to court suppression orders.
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