Convicted murderer Adrian Basham has claimed he is innocent as he fights to avoid being handed a life prison sentence for killing his estranged wife.
Basham, 46, who was in April found guilty of murdering his ex-wife Samantha Fraser, faced the Supreme Court in Melbourne on Friday for another pre-sentence hearing after his previous legal team dropped him.
Basham met Ms Fraser in 2005 and they married in 2007, before having three children together. After years of domineering and controlling behaviour, they separated in 2017 and Ms Fraser took out intervention orders against him.
On July 23, 2018, he turned up at Ms Fraser's home and waited for 90 minutes, while she dropped their children at school, before killing her.
Her body was found hanging from a noose.
Basham was found guilty of strangling Ms Fraser with a rope, after prosecutors said he was laying in wait for her on Phillip Island.
His new barrister, Dermott Dann KC, on Friday argued Basham should not be handed a life sentence as he was not a threat to the wider community.
However, he admitted his arguments in the hearing would be limited to the evidence the jury found him guilty on, as Basham denied he had killed Ms Fraser.
"Mr Basham maintains his innocence," Mr Dann told the court, "so that does limit me to a certain extent."
Basham had been charged with raping Ms Fraser months earlier and she was due to give evidence against him a week after she was killed.
Prosecutors claimed Basham killed Ms Fraser to stop her from speaking against him on the rape charges, which were later dropped after he was found guilty.
But Mr Dann said the murder was not an "execution" over Ms Fraser's upcoming court appearance and claimed the offending did not fall into the worst category.
"As found by the jury, Ms Fraser was the victim of a terrible crime, however the point is he does not represent an ongoing danger to the wider community, he does not have that history about him," Mr Dann told the court.
"We aren't at the very worst category, we aren't at the extreme end."
Mr Dann argued the murder was not premeditated and his motive was more complicated than prosecutors had submitted. Basham was jealous, angry about not seeing his children and upset about the relationship breakdown, he said.
"Amongst all of these competing motives and inferences, you cannot be satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that this is a case of a man executing his former wife simply to avoid a situation where she gave and would give evidence at a committal," Mr Dann said.
He cited Basham's lack of prior criminal convictions, prospects for rehabilitation and submitted references as evidence of him being a "hard working" employee.
He said Basham was being held in protective custody due to assaults and threats from other prisoners, making his time in jail more onerous.
Mr Dann asked Justice Lesley Taylor to hand Basham a "very significant" head sentence with a non-parole period.
Prosecutor Nanette Rogers SC said, while there were many motives, Basham's primary motive was to prevent Ms Fraser from giving evidence.
"The timeline here is crucially important, being seven days out," she said.
Justice Taylor said needed time to reflect on all submissions and she planned to sentence Basham in February next year.
1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732)
Lifeline 13 11 14
