Ex-stripper killed for cash, accomplice did it 'just for sex', appeal court told

Robyn Lindholm pleaded guilty to murder after enlisting her lover Torsten Trabert and John Ryan to kill Hawthorn gym owner Wayne Amey on December 10, 2013, the day before he was due in court to address a property dispute he had had with Lindholm.

Trabert is also appealing his sentence, with his lawyer arguing that while Lindholm, 43, had a "primary motive" to kill Mr Amey, his client's motive was "put very simply, your honour, sex", the Court of Appeal was told on Thursday.

Supreme Court Justice Lex Lasry sentenced Lindholm to 25 years, Trabert to 28 years and Ryan to 31 years imprisonment for Mr Amey's murder last year. All three are appealing their prison terms.

Defence counsel for Lindholm, Scott Johns,  conceded that Lindholm had long harboured her hatred and intention to kill the victim but had taken some responsibility for her crime in pleading guilty, even though it was at a late stage.

The victim in this case, Mr Johns argued, was not a vulnerable young person, his body had not been mutilated, and, while he had been killed, "extreme violence" had not been involved.

Senior Crown prosecutor Douglas Trapnell, QC, said that all three were equally morally responsible for Mr Amey's murder in their different roles as instigator and physical killers.

"Because this was a pre-meditated plan and callous killing on the eve of a court hearing – where Mr Amey was to exercise his legal rights – brings it very close to the worst case," Mr Trapnell said.

"This man was beaten in the basement of his apartment building where he had the right to feel safe. He was hog-tied ... then put in [a car] boot and remained alive for quite some time albeit with [injuries including] fractured ribs..."

Mr Trapnell said the victim had pleaded for his life before he was killed, probably by being stabbed in the chest.

The trio had also, in effect,  desecrated Mr Amey 's body because they had hidden it in a crevice on Mount Korong, near Wedderburn in northern Victoria, where it might never have been found.

Trabert, he said, had been given a discount in his sentence for helping police locate the body.

Lawyers for Trabert and Ryan also argued that their clients should receive lower sentences, with Lindholm having the greatest responsibility for the murder.

Adam Chernok, for Trabert, said that if his client had not shown investigators where they had hidden the victim's body "it's arguable it would have been a much more difficult case to prove and indeed may not have obtained the plea of Ms Lindholm."

"The location of the body by my client allowed the family to seek some closure in having the body returned and afforded a proper burial."

Justice Phillip Priest said that both men had the chance to pull out of the murder plan while the victim was alive in the boot of the car, but failed to take it, emphasising "how nasty this killing was".

Mr Chernok argued that Lindholm had the "primary motive" to kill Mr Amey. Asked what his client's motive was to participate in the killing, he said: "Put very simply, your honour, sex."

He said that Trabert's relationship with Lindholm was based on sex. He had been suffering depression, and had attempted to take his own life at least once.

"If the killing of Amey is Robyn Lindholm's wicked design it is not a truly shared motive in terms of the killing as I've described ... My client is motivated by sex in the context of his particular circumstances."

David ​Hallowes, for Ryan, said that his client had become involved after he was told the victim had mistreated Lindholm.

He had understood they were only going to beat him. The murder would not have happened if it were not for Lindholm's involvement, Mr Hallowes said.

Mr Trapnell said that Ryan became involved in the plan "with full knowledge of what was planned and became a willing party to it."

Justice Phillip Priest, Justice Simon Whelan and Justice Mark Weinberg will decide the appeal at a later date.