Children of a Adrian Bashjam, who murdered Samantha Fraser in Melbourne, were taunted at school

The young children of slain Melbourne mum Samantha Fraser were savagely mocked by cruel classmates over their loss. 

Adrian Basham, 44, murdered his estranged wife in the garage of her parents’ Phillip Island home on July 23, 2018 then made it look like a suicide. 

On Monday, his 13-year old daughter Jemima stood before him in the Supreme Court of Victoria to tell him how she had been mocked over his action. 

Samantha Fraser was attacked by her husband, murdered and strung up inside her parents’ Phillip Island home. 

One child told her: ‘I bet her mum didn’t even die and she’s just doing it to get attention.

‘What if Jemima goes psycho just like her dad and kills us. What are you going to do, cry about it to your mummy? 

‘Fatherless behaviour. Go kill yourself like your mum did.’

Jemima then aged 9, had been left waiting for her mum at the school flag pole with her little sister April, 7, and brother Rex, 5 on the day their mother was murdered. 

The children now live with their elderly grandparents, who also provided powerful victim impact statements to their daughter’s killer. 

Leading up to Father’s Day, the court heard Rex’s classmates bullied him with disgusting remarks. 

Adrian Basham was found guilty of murdering his estranged wife Samantha Fraser

‘Rex came home from school really upset because a boy asked him what he would write in his Father’s Day card and suggested he could say “Thanks dad for murdering mum”, Samantha’s mother Janine Fraser told the court. 

Despite the family’s pain, Jemima told her ‘monster’ father that his actions would not break her.

‘I’m here to tell you I’m a fighter,’ she told Basham, who proceeded to complain throughout his Supreme Court of Victoria pre-sentence hearing. 

It was Ms Fraser’s devotion to her children that immediately cast doubt on her supposed suicide.

Her battered body had been found hanging from the garage door of her parents’ fortified Seagrove Way home on Phillip Island – south east of Melbourne. 

Basham had struck while her parents had been away on a trip to the United States.  

Police alleged he snuck into the garage as Ms Fraser returned home after meeting with friends. 

DNA evidence showed that Basham’s biological material was found under both fingernails of Ms Fraser’s hands. 

Samantha Fraser fought hard for her life, but could not overpower the hulking beast who murdered her 

Adrian Basham is accused of killing Samantha Fraser (pictured) inside her Phillip Island home in 2018

Basham had long denied murdering Ms Fraser but in the end it took the jury a little over a day to find him guilty of the calculated murder.  

Jemima told her father she had made the trip into court to ensure her mother received justice. 

Repeating the words ‘I have struggled’ three times before finishing her sentence, the teenager fought back tears to condemn her father’s murderous actions. 

‘I have struggled with anxiety and even suicidal thoughts, but I am here today to show people that I am a fighter and we will get justice for my mum,’ she told Basham.  

Jemima outlined the three reasons that motivated her to face her remorseless father. 

‘To get justice for the life mum deserved. For my friends and family … For me. I have struggled … in the years since mum was taken. And even with the support it is so unimaginably hard,’ she said. 

Jemima told Basham she had spent four long months putting together the words she wanted him to know. 

‘He murdered my mum. He took Sammy’s life and in doing so destroyed so many others. Just the thought that even with the limitless amount of love my mum had from everyone in her life, she could be taken away in minutes is nauseating,’ Jemima said. 

‘And to be here in court because it’s true is something else. I had my whole life ripped away. I lost my mum, a dad, my social life and a chance at a normal future.’

Adrian Basham bashed and murdered his wife before attempting to make it look like a suicide

Basham makes his getaway after murdering the mother of his children and making it look like she had suicided 

The Cowes home where Samantha Fraser was allegedly murdered in 2018

The court heard Jemima’s younger siblings had endured similar torment, with little Rex so afraid of his dad that he made a fortress in his bed during his father’s trial. 

‘To keep the monsters out,’ his grandmother told the court on his behalf.  

April, now aged 9, told the court her father had ‘taken the best part of her heart away’. 

But in a slap in the face to his children, the court heard Basham was still trying to make excuses for killing his wife. 

In an extraordinary claim, not put before the jury that found him guilty, the court heard Basham maintained it had been his wife who asked him around on the day he would kill her. 

Further, his barrister Ashley Halphen claimed Basham had acted ‘spontaneously’ when he bashed, murdered and hanged his estranged wife from the garage door of her parents’ home. 

‘It is logical, it is reasonable that he attended the residence with a non violent purpose,’ Mr Halphen said. 

A GoFundMe page has been established in the hope of helping the Frasers provide everything the children would have enjoyed financially if their mother was still alive. 

The plea hearing needed to be halted after Basham refused to pipe down from the prison dock.

It will return to court last next month.