By KATH GANNAWAY
A YARRA Junction man has been sentenced to 19 years in prison for the brutal murder of his partner, Elizabeth Barnes, in 2013.
Andrew Carl Albert Klaussner, 40, pleaded guilty in March this year to killing Ms Barnes in the cabin they shared at a caravan park in Britannia Creek Road, Yarra Junction.
Elizabeth Barnes, a mother and grandmother, was 37 when she was strangled by Klaussner after the pair had argued over his plans to use rent money to buy drugs.
Sentencing Klaussner in the Melbourne Supreme Court this morning (Friday), Justice Elizabeth Hollingworth said after killing Ms Barnes he left her on the floor of the cabin, took her bank card and bought ice and cannabis.
Justice Hollingworth said Klaussner’s behaviour following the murder demonstrated a complete lack of remorse and disregard for anything but his own interests.
She said sounds heard by a neighbour were likely to be the sound from pornography that Klaussner was watching as Ms Barnes was already dead.
She said he had used Ms Barnes’ mobile phone to film himself masturbating and had twice tried to use her bank card to access an online dating site.
Klaussner bought more ice on the Friday and on the Saturday concocted a story about returning to the cabin to find Ms Barnes dead.
Justice Hollingworth dismissed Klaussner’s claim, after he finally admitted to police that he had killed her, that he was defending himself from a knife attack by Ms Barnes.
She said his version of events in no way explained a stab wound to the back of Ms Barnes’ neck, or numerous other injuries to her face and neck.
“The fact that you suffered no defensive injuries, and she suffered multiple injuries, indicates what a one-sided fight it was,” she said.
She said there was no evidence that Klaussner had taken ice before he killed Ms Barnes.
“Even if you had already taken ice, that might help explain, but it would certainly not justify your behaviour.”
She said she accepted that Klaussner’s actions were not premeditated, and that his intention while strangling Ms Barnes was to cause injury rather than to kill her.
“The evidence suggests a sustained attack by you, using a knife as well as the continued application of pressure on her throat over a period of at least some minutes,” Justice Hollingworth said.
She said Klaussner’s drug and alcohol abuse had started at about 14 and that by his mid-twenties he was a regular binge user of amphetamines and then methamphetamine (ice) on a regular basis.
She found he had no prior convictions for violence, reasonable prospects for rehabilitation, and said his early guilty plea had been taken into account in sentencing.
Klaussner will serve at least 15 years before being eligible for parole with 619 days already served.
