AN elderly businessman instructed a hitman to strangle a woman he hated then bury her in a 30 foot-deep hole dug by an excavator, a West Australian court has heard.
Brian Vincent Attwell, 73, is on trial in the Albany Courthouse charged with the rare offence of attempting to procure the commission of a crime.
In his opening address on Monday, state prosecutor James MacTaggart said the well-known local businessman was approached by a truck driver who said he desperately wanted work in the historic Great Southern town and had heard Attwell might be able to offer him employment.
Attwell agreed to meet the man, Mr MacTaggart said, but left him shocked after offering him $30,000 to kill a woman the AD Contractors managing director despised intensely.
"I've got $30,000 to pay you right now. I want her gone," Attwell allegedly said.
Alarmed, the truck driver told police, who launched an investigation and instructed him to call Attwell back, saying he knew "a bit of a nasty bastard" who would do it.
Attwell, who is wheelchair bound, was then called by a man named Josh, who agreed to fly to Albany from Perth to discuss the deal.
"Unbeknownst to the accused ... he was speaking to a police officer," Mr MacTaggart said.
Attwell then met Josh twice to discuss details and pay him a $10,000 down payment on the hit in two instalments.
He used foul names to describe his target, saying she had cost a family member $200,000 in a legal dispute.
"I just want her strangled, no blood," Attwell is claimed to have said.
But defence lawyer Tom Percy argued Attwell was simply exploring his options.
Mr Percy described his discussions with the truck driver and undercover officer as "bravado and puff, an attempt to express the depth of his frustration".
Attwell was prone to exaggeration and bluster on matters that he felt strongly about, Mr Percy said.
And he hadn't got to the point of giving the go-ahead. The undercover police officer had never been given a detailed description of the woman, her address or a time to kill her.
Instead, he'd provided "nebulous details", Mr Percy said.
It was no secret Attwell hated the woman, but was leaning towards having her followed, perhaps scared.
"At no stage was he actually committed to the prospect of causing her physical harm, let alone killing her," Mr Percy said.
"Nothing was ever concluded.
"There was a long way to go." The trial continues.
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