Businessman 'sought hit man'
A prominent, wealthy businessman was consumed with "sheer hatred" over his son's expensive and protracted marriage breakdown when he attempted to hire a contract killer to murder his estranged daughter-in-law, a jury was told yesterday.
Brian Vincent Attwell is accused of attempting to hire a "hit man" in a bid to make Michelle Patreena Attwell vanish and rid his family of the problems he blamed on the mother of his son's child.
Opening the case against Mr Attwell in the Supreme Court in Albany, prosecutor James MacTaggart said the 74-year-old had even researched the Rayney murder trial in Perth before he handed over $10,000 to a man he knew only as Josh as a down- payment for killing Ms Attwell.
Mr MacTaggart said unbeknown to Mr Attwell, "Josh" was an undercover officer in a covert operation launched after a local man contacted police with concerns about the businessman's plans.
He said that in secretly recorded conversations and meetings between Mr Attwell and Josh, Mr Attwell was heard claiming Ms Attwell had cost his son $200,000.
Mr Attwell is accused of suggesting Ms Attwell should be strangled - so as not to leave any blood - before her body was buried.
"Ask her for a cup of coffee, then grab the c... of a thing, bind her with duct tape, her arms behind her back and strangle the f...... thing," the jury was told Mr Attwell could be heard instructing Josh.
Mr Attwell, described by his lawyer Tom Percy as an "apparent pillar of respectability in the Albany community", is facing trial after pleading not guilty to a charge of attempting to procure the commission of a murder between September 18 and 27 last year.
Mr Percy told the court Mr Attwell never intended "to go the whole way" of having his estranged daughter-in-law killed.
"There is no doubt that at the time, he had nothing but contempt and loathing for his daughter-in-law," Mr Percy said. "But this was essentially bravado and puff.
"In reality, he meant her no physical harm. He certainly did not want her dead."
Mr Percy said Mr Attwell had handed over the $10,000 to keep Josh on the line and was considering whether something could be done to "scare" Ms Attwell into backing down from the "mayhem" he believed she was causing his family.
"Whilst he talked the talk, he had no intention of actually walking the walk," Mr Percy said.
Ms Attwell told the jury yesterday that about five years after her marriage breakdown with Mr Attwell's son Ian in late 2006, her former father-in-law had telephoned and threatened to "run her down" if he saw her in the street.
Under cross-examination, Ms Attwell denied she still had a bone to pick with her ex-husband after referring to his mistress during the 2011 telephone conversation. The local man who alerted police to his concerns, whose name is suppressed, told the court he had contacted Mr Attwell to get a job and had been desperate for money.
But he said Mr Attwell's demeanour had changed when he commented that women were a "strange breed" that he likened to cattle, then offered him $30,000 and looked him "straight in the eye" when saying he wanted his estranged daughter-in-law "gone".
The trial continues.
