By KATH GANNAWAY
A YARRA Junction man tried to blame friends and neighbours for the brutal death of his partner, the Melbourne Supreme Court heard last week.
It wasn’t the worst of a shocking litany of revelations at a plea hearing on Friday 15 May, in relation to the murder of Elizabeth Barnes at the hands of her partner Andrew Carl Albert Klaussner.
Klaussner, 40, pleaded guilty in March to killing Miss Barnes, then 37, on 26 September 2013.
The court heard the couple had argued over money in the cabin they shared at a caravan park in Britannia Creek Road, Yarra Junction, on the day she was killed.
Behind in their rent, with $380 due in three days, and faced with again being homeless, they had been to Warburton earlier in the day to look for rental accommodation.
The court heard that they returned to the cabin, where Klaussner wanted money to buy drugs, but Ms Barnes wanted to keep it for rent.
Crown Prosecutor Fran Dalziel said Klaussner strangled Ms Barnes who also suffered knife wounds, including a stab wound to the back of the neck and bruises and cuts to her head and neck.
Ms Dalziel said while the prosecution could not say exactly what happened, it was clear that Ms Barnes was also struck to the face with blunt force and that a knife caused superficial cuts and the deep stab wound.
She said this was contrary to Mr Klaussner’s version where he claimed she had picked up the knife and attacked him and that he was attempting to disarm her.
She said Klaussner had a history of violence towards Ms Barnes.
“Having killed Ms Barnes, Klaussner took her bankcard, purchased methylamphetamine, injected that drug and spent the night on the bed while Ms Barnes lay dead on the floor,” she said.
Ms Dalziel said Klaussner told his drug dealer that he had strangled “my missus” and knocked her out.
He told him he didn’t know whether he had killed her and was “too scared to go back and see what had happened”.
She said he reported the death to police the following Saturday, VFA Grand Final day, creating a false story and pointing the finger at a number of potential suspects.
The court heard that Klaussner admitted to killing Ms Barnes only after being shown footage he had filmed of himself committing a sex act in the cabin on the night of the murder.
Justice Hollingsworth questioned defence barrister Tony Trood, who said his client had told police he was “flying on ice” when he watched pornography filmed himself on Ms Barnes’ phone.
In relation to Mr Trood’s comments that the motivation for the sexual behaviour conducted by his client was a recognised clinical side effect of ice use, Justice Hollingsworth questioned the relative timeframes.
She said also: “His immediate instinct after killing Ms Barnes isn’t to do anything, or to tend in relation to her, it’s to go and meet his addictive needs and look after himself.”
Ms Barnes was a mother and grandmother.
Her son, in a victim impact statement read to the court, said there wasn’t a day that went by that he and his partner didn’t think or talk about his mother.
“Our son asks about ‘Big Nan’.”
He said they were expecting a second child.
“It is a shame she is missing out on lives of her grandsons.
“Our lives have changed forever.”
Her (the deceased’s) mother said the toll of her daughter’s death was insurmountable.
“The grieving is constantly with us,” she said.
Her brother said he still had days when he expected his sister to ring.
“I go back to the night I got the phone call and wonder if all the people in my life should be brought closer, or should I push them away,” he said.
“Watching the emotional pressure on my parents makes me think, am I doing enough.
“I sit and wonder what would have become of her as we got older.
“We will never know.”
Klaussner faces a possible maximum sentence of life imprisonment when he is sentenced in June.
