Adrian Basham is jailed for life for murdering Samantha Fraser, staging her death as suicide
An estranged husband who savagely beat his wife to death and then tied a noose around her neck and faked her murder as suicide has been jailed for at least 30 years.
Adrian James Basham, now 46, was jailed for life on Monday and ordered to serve at least three decades behind bars for the savage murder of his ex-partner, mother-of-three Samantha Fraser.
Ms Fraser’s family cheered as Basham was led out after his sentencing in Victoria’s High Court on Monday.
After escaping from terrifying family violence, Ms. Fraser was excited to start a wonderful new phase in her life.
His birthday on July 22, 2018 was meant to be the starting point. And she then she was killed.
He walked into his garage in Cowes, on Phillip Island, after taking his three children to school on July 23. Basham was on the lookout.
Adrian James Basham, now 46, was jailed for life on Monday and ordered to serve at least three decades behind bars for the savage murder of his ex-partner, mother-of-three Samantha Fraser. He is pictured arriving in custody at court to hear his fate on Monday.
Samantha Fraser was attacked by her husband, murdered, and hanged inside her parents’ home on Phillip Island. she had three children
Samantha Fraser was a loving mother who would never have taken her own life, a court heard
He savagely beat her, leaving her with 41 separate blunt force wounds.
He tied a noose around her neck and hung her over the garage door, staging her murder as a suicide.
‘No matter how you look at it, your offense was extremely serious. You invaded the legal and physical sanctity of Ms. Fraser’s home and subjected her to a savage beating before hanging her,” Judge Lesley Taylor said.
‘His last conscious moments would have been spent in terror.’
Judge Taylor found that Basham likely surprised Ms. Fraser while she was sitting in the driver’s seat of his car, having waited more than two hours in the garage for her to return home.
They met in 2005 and married in 2007, and after years of domineering and controlling behavior, Fraser called it quits in 2017.
Basham was accused in August of that year of raping her during their marriage and she was due to testify against him a week later.
His premeditated murder of Ms. Fraser, motivated by his desire to avoid trial for rape, was extremely selfish and showed an extraordinary degree of right, Justice Taylor said.
‘Your decision to execute Samantha Fraser, a woman who found the courage to defy you, keep her children safe from you and live a life free of you, was cold.
You decided his life was expendable… and you had the arrogance to think you wouldn’t get caught.
He found that Basham was unmoved by numerous statements detailing the pain he had caused his own children by killing their mother.
Ms Fraser, 38, had told a friend that she felt strong and determined to have her voice heard in court.
But despite that she was terrified of him. There was an intervention order, Ms Fraser’s parents had moved in with her to help protect her and less than 48 hours before her death, Ms Fraser said she was more attentive to her safety after Basham was seen on the island.
Adrian Basham was found guilty of murdering his ex-wife Samantha Fraser and has been incarcerated for at least 30 years, with a possible full sentence of life in prison.
Judge Taylor found that Basham likely surprised Ms. Fraser while she was sitting in the driver’s seat of his car, having waited more than two hours in the garage for her to return home. The court heard that CCTV (pictured) captured him wearing a hoodie as he waited outside his house.
The Cowes house where Samantha Fraser was allegedly murdered in 2018
The day before she died she celebrated her birthday. Her previous birthday was horrible, she told her partner, but in a text message she sent him on the day of her death, she revealed that this birthday would mark the beginning of a new phase. wonderful in her life.
Ms. Fraser’s parents described her as a mother who loved her children fiercely, a mother who was the very center of her children’s universe.
They were five, seven and nine years old when she died.
Now that she is a teenager, her oldest daughter said nothing would compare to the damage Basham had done to her and her family.
He murdered my mother. He took Sammy’s life and in doing so destroyed many others.
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