Borce Ristevski, who killed his wife Karen before dumping her body in Victorian bushland and spinning a “web of lies” has been jailed for nine years for the high-profile manslaughter.
The 47-year-old victim was found covered in branches eight months after she went missing in 2016, with Ristevski lying to his bride’s family and taking part at her funeral as a pallbearer, playing the part of an “innocent, grieving widower”.
The son of Borce Ristevski, Anthony Rickard, has claimed his father pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of his wife Karen Ristevski to avoid details of his wife’s relationship with his son coming out in court.
Ristevski, 55, pleaded guilty last month to the manslaughter of his wife Karen almost three years after she went missing in June 2016.
“I gave him an ultimatum,” Mr Rickard told news.com.au at the time.
“I told him ‘If you don’t get up and be a man I’ll go into the (witness) box and tell them exactly what went on behind closed doors’.”
Rickard, Borce Ristevski’s son from a previous marriage, had repeated earlier claims that he and his stepmother had a sexual relationship.
He said his father knew of their relationship for years after he first approached him about it in 2006, but his father “did nothing” and “didn’t protect me”.
The aunty of Karen Ristevski, Patricia Gray, attacked husband Borce’s eleventh hour confession as a selfish move.
She told the Herald Sun the move is too little, too late and Borce Ristevski will not explain why he did it.
“He has done this for selfish reasons,” she told the newspaper.
“He is either covering up for someone or just can’t face it. I don’t know.”
The manslaughter confession from Borce Ristevski averted the need for a high-profile murder trial.
Ristevski was charged in December 2017 after a lengthy investigation that involved listening devices and CCTV footage analysis.
He allegedly killed his 47-year-old wife at their Avondale Heights home on June 29, 2016 and took her Mercedes-Benz roadster to dispose of the body in bushland.
Eight months later, her skeletal remains were found between logs in Macedon Regional Park.
Top Comments
How many wives and partners had been killed by a 'coward punch' before the mandatory sentencing came in? One of the biggest health expenditures for women recovering from family violence is having their teeth fixed so we know they get punched all the time.
This is why we need more female prime ministers, politicians, policy-makers, judges, police officers etc. It is the only way that the female perspective will ever get considered.
Another disgraceful sentence. I notice the first person was sentenced under the new Vic one-punch laws this week, with a mandatory non-parole period of ten years. When people (men) dying from the ‘coward punch’ became an issue, laws were changed. And yet, when it comes to domestic violence, women are being killed on a weekly basis and this guy gets a minimum of six years. He killed his wife, disposed of her body, and lied repeatedly to police. And he could be out in five years, with time served. All this talk about wanting to stop domestic violence is nothing but lip service, telling people what they want to hear, and means NOTHING until something is done about our legal system.
Yeah, couldn't agree with you more.
Having said that, the fact that Borce received a nothing sentence isn't a surprise, it never is. I really do think that the judiciary just really don't give a shit about women sometimes.
I see this argument a lot. Do people really think that the first coward punches only happened in the last 10 years?
The laws were not bought in as soon as these punches started happening.
But i agree that laws for killing people, anyone but especially including DV, need to be stronger.
They must do, they keep giving them lesser sentences.
It's truly unbelievable.