Speargun killer of NZ-born wife 'full of self-disgust'

MELBOURNE - A man who used a speargun to murder his New Zealand-born pregnant wife and 20-month-old daughter knew he faced life in jail for his horrendous crimes, his barrister said yesterday.

Jane Dixon told the Victorian Supreme Court her client, John Myles Sharpe, 38, knew his crimes were "too awful to contemplate".

Sharpe formally pleaded guilty to the murders of 41-year-old Anna Kemp and 20-month-old Gracie Sharpe.

He killed Ms Kemp with two speargun shots to the head on March 23 last year as she slept, and buried her body in a shallow grave in the backyard of their home in Mornington, Crown Prosecutor Jeremy Rapke, QC, said.

He murdered his daughter four days later in an act of "irrational bloody madness" as he tried to make it appear his five-months-pregnant wife had removed the child and deserted him for another man.

Ms Dixon said Sharpe realised the Crown would argue for a life sentence for his crimes.

She said that when Sharpe did finally confess he did not try to minimise what he had done.

He had been "full of self-disgust" when he gave his account of the murders to the police, she said.

Ms Dixon said the marriage had been an unhappy one.

"She [Ms Kemp] had been strong-willed, vibrant and decisive".

People who knew the couple wondered what Anna Kemp saw in her husband, a conveyancer.

"He was dull and she was interesting."

A psychiatrist, Dr Lester Walton, said Sharpe had a passive and retiring personality and was a person unable to confront problems.

At first glance it would appear the killings were the result of a "fairly mad act".

However, there was no evidence of psychosis, he said.

The court was told Sharpe removed his wife's body from the grave, dismembered it with a chainsaw and placed the remains and the body of his daughter in waste collection bins at the Mornington Transfer Station.

He later told police that he killed his wife because she was "controlling and moody" and that their marriage was unhappy.

Mr Rapke told the court that Sharpe, after killing Anna Kemp, told his mother-in-law in a telephone call to NZ that his wife would be returning to collect their daughter.

"You may think that this was a most telling remark to make at that time and presaged a dark and evil event which was about to occur," he said.

It was Ms Kemp's suspicious parents who sparked the investigation by reporting their daughter missing to the New Zealand police.

The hearing was adjourned to a date to be fixed.

- AAP