Accused man’s ex-wife first witness in Claremont trial

THE first wife of the man accused of the Claremont serial killings, Bradley Robert Edwards, has testified at his trial, revealing they had an even messier break-up than previously thought.

The 50-year-old ex-Telstra technician is accused of murdering secretary Sarah Spiers, 18, child care worker Jane Rimmer, 23, and lawyer Ciara Glennon, 27, after abducting or luring them into his work car at night in 1996 and 1997.

His ex-wife, whose identity is suppressed, was the first witness to give evidence in the Western Australia Supreme Court trial, saying their relationship deteriorated after he brought a computer home.

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The former Little Athletics coach would often spend many hours on the device until the early morning, leaving her to go to bed alone.

“It was a long time,” she said via video link on Wednesday.

“I just felt like he wasn’t interested, he wasn’t present in the marriage.”

They separated between late 1995 and early 1996 after she became close to a boarder, ultimately moving in with the man, whose identity is also suppressed, and having his child.

Before they moved out, Edwards caught them hugging and kissing but barely responded.

“Bradley didn’t say too much to me at all,” she said.

The break wasn’t clean.

While living with her new lover, the woman returned to the matrimonial home and had sex with Edwards.

The next morning, she asked him if they were doing the right thing, suggesting they sort out their marriage, but he was non-responsive.

“He didn’t say anything to me at all,” she said.

“He never made any comment about us separating.

“He did not ask me to return.”

Edwards remained expressionless in the dock as the intimate details emerged.

Earlier, the woman painted a picture of Edwards as a dutiful husband who would drop her off and pick her up from work in the CBD every day, but he failed to collect her after an “incident” at Hollywood Hospital.

Edwards attacked a social worker while he was doing work for Telstra at the facility in 1990, which earnt him an assault conviction and he was also ordered to complete a sex offender program.

His ex-wife said she caught a bus home after he failed to arrive, then met up with him at his parent’s house.

She said the pair had an argument the night before about getting married, which she had raised.

“He seemed a little bit upset about it, then I got upset,” she said.

She went to their bedroom, he tried to console her, they talked about it, hugged and stopped arguing.

Edwards’ ex-wife recalled him being a social drinker who favoured beer and did not consume alcohol excessively, but prosecutors allege his drinking increased after the relationship breakdown.

The ex-wife also told the court she and Edwards did not frequent Claremont, and while they owned a horse, they never went to a riding school in Wellard, near bushland where Ms Rimmer’s body was found.

Her testimony in WA’s so-called “trial of the century” followed almost two days of opening addresses.

Barrister Paul Yovich said in his brief remarks the defence case was simple: Edwards did not do it.

He said some DNA exhibits relied upon by prosecutors had been contaminated in a laboratory and fibre evidence may also be tainted.

Prosecutor Carmel Barbagallo outlined how breakthroughs in scientific evidence eventually led to Edwards’ arrest in December 2016, more than two decades after the first murder.

Edwards last month admitted to five offences stemming from an attack on a sleeping 18-year-old woman in Huntingdale in 1988, and the abduction and double rape of a teenager at Karrakatta cemetery in 1995.