A handyman has been jailed for 27 years for the brutal murder of an elderly woman who sought him out for help.
Vicki Ramadan first knocked on Stuart Paul Anderson’s door in early 2019, asking if he could complete a few odd jobs around the house.
He went to her home in Melbourne‘s northwest and fixed a fence on March 23, with the 77-year-old paying Anderson $300 for his services.
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Three days later, he broke into her home to steal jewellery and cash believing she was out of the house.
But Ramadan was still home and when she confronted him in the hallway, he bashed her to death with either a hammer or a torch.
Anderson left Ramadan’s body in a pool of blood and concocted a false story, claiming he discovered her death a week later when retrieving his tools.
A Supreme Court jury rejected his claims and in December 2023 found him guilty of Ramadan’s murder.
Justice Amanda Fox on Thursday described the killing as a brutal attack on a vulnerable woman as she sentenced Anderson to 27 years behind bars.
He will be eligible for parole after 20 years.
“[Ramadan’s] home should have been a place of safety,” Fox said in her sentencing remarks.
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“You knew she was elderly, frail and alone.”
Fox accepted Anderson did not go to Ramadan’s home with the intention to murder her, rather it was a spontaneous killing after the elderly woman foiled his burglary plans.
But he repeatedly lied to the police and even told a journalist in the days after Ramadan’s death that he hoped the cops caught her killer.
Fox said his conduct after the murder was an aggravating feature, as was his lack of remorse and his continued denials.
She accepted Anderson had been on remand since December 2019 and had to spend the entire COVID-19 pandemic in custody, where there were repeated lockdowns.
There were also significant delays in his case due to the pandemic and his first trial resulted in a hung jury so a second trial had to be scheduled.
“I take into account the uncertainty and stress you would have experienced because of that delay,” Fox said.
She also noted his disadvantaged childhood, his prior convictions for violent offending, and his diagnosed complex post-traumatic stress disorder.
But Fox maintained the murder of Ramadan was a crime of sudden and extreme violence that needed to be publicly condemned.
Anderson blinked and gritted his teeth as the sentence was handed down.
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