When Lisa Lines first met Zacharia Bruckner in Canberra, she was a highly regarded historian and lecturer, and he was an arts student.
Lines recruited Bruckner to work at her publishing company and the pair later lived together alongside her then husband and children.
The two became lovers and, almost a decade after they first met, have now been accused of attempting to murder Lines’ former husband, Jonathan Hawtin, after a violent incident in 2017 left him tetraplegic.
Lines, 43, who was extradited from the tiny Pacific nation of Palau earlier this month, stands accused of hatching multiple plots with female and male lovers to murder Hawtin, as well as conspiring to kill his mother.
She was denied bail in Adelaide magistrates court on Monday, and intends to plead not guilty to all charges.
Guardian Australia has broken down the complex love story and numerous criminal accusations that are before the court.
Who is Lisa Lines?
Lines was previously best known for founding academic publishing company Capstone Editing.
As an academic, she has been recognised for her work chronicling the role of female combatants in the Spanish civil war, who she argued had long been “undermined” and “dismissed”.
She has spoken about gender inequity in universities too, highlighted by the lack of women in senior roles and the difficulties she’d experienced balancing academia with motherhood.
With a PhD in history and creative writing, Lines spoke of her aspirations to author a book – Academic Mamas – about just that.
But her plans were curtailed when her own life became the story.
Ex-husband cleared of attempted murder
Lines met Bruckner in 2014 when he was studying a bachelor of arts at the Australian Defence Force Academy, where she worked as a lecturer for UNSW Canberra, according to an episode of ABC’s Australian Story in 2020.
Having worked at her editing business and lived in the family home in Canberra, Bruckner, who is 13 years younger than Lines, moved with the family in 2017 when they relocated to South Australia. Months later, Lines ended her relationship with Hawtin, and began one with Bruckner.
When Hawtin moved out of the Adelaide Hills home in August he was in the dark about the romance, he told ABC.
In October, when Hawtin arrived at the home with his children, a violent incident broke out between the men, leaving the garage splattered in blood.
A supreme court trial heard Bruckner bludgeoned Hawtin in the neck with a hatchet eight times, while Hawtin fired a shot into Bruckner’s abdomen with a rifle.
In the aftermath, Hawtin was charged with attempted murder over the shooting, but was unanimously found not guilty by a jury after three hours of deliberation in 2019.
In 2020, major crime detectives in South Australia reopened the investigation and found crime scene evidence did not add up with Lines and Bruckner’s version of events, director of public prosecutions Martin Hinton told magistrate John Wells on Monday.
Hinton said it pointed to Hawtin being the victim.
The incident left a permanent mark on the 36-year-old’s life. Hawtin told ABC he is confined to a wheelchair and requires around-the-clock care. Previously, he’d worked as a plumber and was the primary carer for the couple’s two children.
Third relationship in the spotlight
Lines is also accused of attempting to murder Hawtin on New Year’s Day 2018 with another woman, Leticia Fortune.
The supreme court at Hawtin’s trial was told Lines had met Fortune on a dating app in 2017.
During Hawtin’s trial, Lines denied in court that she and Fortune had been in a romantic relationship, although she had invited Fortune to move into the house after the shooting.
Fortune, 34, appeared alongside Lines in the dock on Monday, and is alleged to have entered Hampstead Rehabilitation Centre with the intention of suffocating Hawtin with a pillow.
Lines has also been charged with attempted murder over the incident.
Extradited from tiny Pacific nation
Following Hawtin’s trial in 2019, Lines is alleged to have fled to Thailand, along with their children, before settling in Taiwan – which has no extradition treaty with Australia.
Hinton told court that Lines had remained in contact with Bruckner from Taiwan, alleging the pair sought to hire a hitman to “finish the job” on Hawtin between December 2021 and August last year.
But the man she and Bruckner thought they were hiring to kill Hawtin and his mother, Rhonda, was an undercover operative, the court heard.
While overseas, Lines secured a passport and citizenship to the nation of Vanuatu and remained beyond the reach of Australian authorities, Hinton said.
She was arrested in the Pacific island nation of Palau earlier this month and extradited to Brisbane before again being extradited to South Australia.
Bruckner was also arrested in Brisbane this month on conspiracy to murder offences and extradited to South Australia.
Lines’ lawyer, Craig Caldicott, told court she denied trying to murder her ex-husband and intended to plead not guilty to all charges.
She claims she took the children to Thailand on holiday but did not return because she feared for her safety after receiving threats.
Wells said Lines remained an unacceptable flight risk and denied her bail.
He will consider releasing Fortune on home detention at a hearing next Monday.
– Additional reporting by AAP
