Karen Ristevki’s devastated brother has criticised the ‘lenient’ sentencing of her killer husband, saying: ‘We didn’t get justice today, at all’.
Borce Ristevski was today sentenced to nine years in jail for killing his wife and lying about it for almost three years.
With time already served, the 55-year-old, who showed no remorse and refused to explain why or how he killed her, may walk free from jail in less than five years.
After the sentencing, Mrs Ristevki’s brother Stephen Williams gave a brief statement outside Victoria’s Supreme Court.
He said: ‘Nothing is going to bring Karen back but today was about justice.
‘We didn’t get justice today, at all’.
‘As a society, at some stage in regards to domestic violence we must make a stand.’
Wife killer: Borce Ristevski arriving at court to be sentenced for killing his wife Karen
The court heard the killer’s 24-year-old daughter Sarah (pictured today) declined to provide a victim impact statement and instead gave a ‘glowing’ character reference to try to lessen her father’s sentence
Borce Ristevski (centre) learned his fate on Thursday after entering a shock guilty plea last month to reveal he killed his wife Karen (left with their daughter Sarah, right)
Stephen Williams (centre), brother of Karen Ristevski departs the Supreme Court of Victoria in Melbourne
Ristevski killed his wife Karen, 47, at their Melbourne home in June 2016 before dumping her body in a national park where it was found eight months later.
He feigned innocence for almost three years, lying to the police, the public and his daughter, even carrying his wife’s coffin at her funeral, until pleading guilty to manslaughter on the eve of his murder trial last month.
Passing sentence today, Justice Christopher Beale castigated Ristevski for his ‘rank deceit,’ saying ‘for years, you continued spinning your web of lies’.
Ristevski was stony-faced this morning when sentenced to six years without parole.
With 491 days behind bars already, he could be free before his 60th birthday.
Mrs Ristevki’s brother Stephen Williams (pictured today) gave in a brief statement outside Victoria’s Supreme Court in which he slammed the sentence
Wife killer Borce Ristevski is led from a prison van into court as the father-of-two prepares to learn his fate after shock guilty plea
At around 10am today, Ristevski, wearing a suit and white shirt with no tie while sporting a greying beard, was escorted from a police van into a packed courtroom by four corrections officers.
The court heard his 24-year-old daughter Sarah declined to provide a victim impact statement and instead gave a ‘glowing’ character reference to try to lessen her father’s sentence.
The judge said she did this ‘out of love for her father.’
‘I mean no criticism for Sarah – anyone with a modicum of compassion would find her predicament an agonising one,’ he said.
The judge said he regretted that the sentence he must impose would add to her grief.
Judge Beale criticised Ristevski for not revealing how or why he killed his wife.
‘You may have turned off the road of deceit but you have not taken the high road of full and frank disclosure consistent with true remorse,’ he said.
‘You acted as a pall-bearer, playing the part of the innocent, grieving widower.
‘The pretence, the rank deceit, only ended a few weeks ago when you pleaded guilty to manslaughter.’
Ristevski (pictured carrying wife’s coffin) pleaded guilty to manslaughter and has been jailed for nine years
The judge said he did not know enough about how the killing happened to determine whether the crime was mid-range or upper-range manslaughter.
He said it was certainly not low-range because it was a case of domestic violence against a ‘devoted’ wife who ‘should have lived for many more years.’
‘This is a case of domestic violence, it’s a case of a killing taking place in woman’s home where she should feel safest,’ he said.
Justice Beale said Ristevski’s chances of rehabilitation were ‘good’ and that his case was rare because there was no history of domestic violence before the killing.
He said Ristevski’s guilty plea was ‘no small thing’ but added: ‘By reason of his plea of guilty, he’s admitted that he killed Karen Ristevski and he killed her by an unlawful and dangerous act.’
Justice Beale said if he had not pleaded guilty, the sentence would have been 10 years, seven without parole.
Ahead of the murder trial in March, Justice Beale ruled that Ristevski’s actions after the killing, when he played the role of grieving husband, could not be used to prove ‘murderous intent’.
A new indictment with the lesser charge of manslaughter was subsequently filed and Ristevski pleaded guilty.
Following the admission, Sarah gave her father a glowing character reference during a pre-sentence plea hearing at the Supreme Court of Victoria.
‘If I could use a few words to describe my dad’s personality they would be loving, caring, sympathetic, protective and charismatic,’ Sarah said in the character reference that goes on for more than one page.
‘Growing up as a family my mum, dad and I were completely inseparable.
Borce Ristevski is pictured with his daughter Sarah after appealing for information on his wife’s whereabouts in July 2016
This is the spot where Mrs Ristevski’s body was found by horticulturalists in February 2017
‘We would spend all of our spare time together and family was everything to us. The love we had for each other was unexplainable, and everyone in our lives saw it.’
Sarah said she had never witnessed her father act violently towards her mother.
‘My dad has not had any prior convictions or issues with the law, and I can confidently say that in my 23 years and I have never witnessed any form of violence between my mum and dad,’ she said.
Dress shop-owner Karen disappeared from the family home in Avondale Heights, north-west Melbourne, on June 29 2016.
Ristevski was charged in December 2017 following a lengthy investigation.
At last month’s pre-sentencing hearing, defence counsel David Hallowes SC said the crime should be considered in the ‘mid-range’ of the offence of manslaughter.
But prosecutor Brendan Kissane QC argued the crime sat at the higher end and labelled it an example of domestic violence.
‘He (Ristevski) has failed to reveal what went on in the house. The fact he hasn’t given an explanation doesn’t suddenly mean his offence ends up in the middle.’
The maximum sentence for manslaughter is 20 years.
TIMELINE OF KAREN RISTEVSKI’S DEATH AND BRINGING HER KILLER BORCE TO JUSTICE
Karen Ristevski with her daughter Sarah
June 29, 2016
Karen Ristevski last seen at her Melbourne home in Avondale Heights
Her mobile phone pings off a tower in the Macedon Ranges
A car similar to her black Mercedes SLK coupe is spotted by CCTV cameras near Diggers Rest railway station
July 14, 2016
Husband Borce Ristevski and daughter Sarah make a tearful plea for information to help find their missing wife and mother
December 19, 2016
Police search grassland, waterways, creeks and farms
February 20, 2017
Karen Ristevski’s body is found at the Mount Macedon Regional Park
March 6, 2017
Funeral service held with Borce Ristevski a pallbearer and daughter Sarah leading the procession
August 31, 2017
Police recreate the journey of Ms Ristevski on the day she went missing in a black Mercedes, identical to hers
December 13, 2017
Borce Ristevski is charged with murder and faces court where a lawyer indicates a not-guilty plea. He is remanded in custody
April 18, 2018
Ristevski returns to court where it’s revealed detectives tapped his phone calls and planted listening devices as they investigated the alleged killing, compiling a 22,000-page evidence brief
Ristevski is granted state-funded legal aid as he fights the allegations
July 16, 2018
Ristevski’s two-week committal hearing begins and later hears evidence from his daughter Sarah who said he was never ‘aggressive’ towards her mum.
August 2, 2018
Ristevski is ordered to stand trial in the Supreme Court, charged with murdering his wife
December 4, 2018
A five-week trial for Ristevski is set for March 2019
March 13, 2019
A day before a jury is due to be empanelled for his murder trial, prosecutors withdraw the murder charge after a judge’s ruling.
Borce Ristevski pleads guilty to the alternative charge of manslaughter