Karen, Borce and Sarah Ristevski pictured less than a year before Karen's murder. Photo / Facebook
Karen, Borce and Sarah Ristevski pictured less than a year before Karen's murder. Photo / Facebook
Pressure on Victorian authorities to appeal Borce Ristevski's nine-year sentence is approaching boiling point, with the state's top cop revealing his officers remain "frustrated" and "upset" at the lenient term.
The case has generated public fury, with more than 70,200 people putting their names to a petition demanding state prosecutorsappeal the sentence.
A Scotland Yard-trained criminal profiler and victim advocate has also weighed in on the debate, slamming Ristevski's punishment as "unacceptable and unconscionable".
Ristevski, 55, was jailed for a minimum of six years earlier this month for killing his 47-year-old Melbourne retailer wife Karen. With time served, he could be free on parole in five years.
"We've had a lot of police members that have spoken to me about that sentence and their view that it was something that we should appeal," Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Graham Ashton told 3AW radio on Friday.
"We have had a number of police that have indicated their … frustration with that amount (of jail time)."
Borce Ristevski with his wife Karen Ristevski. Photo / Facebook
"The prison sentence handed to Borce Ristevski on 18 April 2019 for the manslaughter of his wife Karen is manifestly too short," the Change.org petition states.
"At a time when violence against women is being condemned across Australia, this 9-year sentence (with a 6-year non-parole period) does not reflect community opinion.
"The petition calls for the Victorian State Government and the Director of Public Prosecutions in Victoria to appeal this sentencing decision and also to review how a decision such as this can be made."
Ms Ristevski vanished from the $1 million Avondale Heights home she shared with her husband of 27 years and their daughter Sarah, on June 29, 2016. Ristevski told police the pair argued about money before his wife stormed out of the house to "cool off".
Karen Ristevski with daughter Sarah Ristevski. Photo / Facebook
Police spent hundreds and thousands of dollars carrying out massive search operations in rugged terrain across Melbourne and the city's outskirts over several months while Ristevski played the grieving husband and supportive father.
Detectives treated him as a prime suspect from the beginning, attaching a tracking device to his car — which he removed — and placing listening devices inside his home.
When a walker stumbled across Ms Ristevski's remains wedged between two fallen logs at Mount Macedon eight months later, Ristevski made a beeline for his lawyer's office.
Her body was so decomposed a post-mortem examination was unable to establish cause of death.
Ristevski has refused to say how and why he killed his wife and his last-minute guilty plea robbed his victim's relatives of the chance to see him cross-examined at trial.
Mr Ashton told 3AW Ristevski's silence had been a source of frustration and said he would welcome a legislated new sentencing penalty that refused early release to convicted killers who refused to reveal how their victims died.
Criminal profiler, law enforcement trainer and victim advocate Laura Richards was disgusted at Ristevski's 'unacceptable' sentence. Photo / Supplied
UK-based criminal profiler and victim advocate Laura Richards, who cut her teeth at Scotland Yard and specialises in murder, domestic violence, rape and stalking cases, said she was disgusted with the Ristevski sentence.
"What I read about the sentencing really angered me," she said in a video titled "The Killing of Karen Ristevski" and posted to her Real Crime Profile page yesterday.
"Post-killing, he didn't call for help, he didn't try to revive and resuscitate her and he basically disposed of her body like he was putting out the trash.
"He even has the audacity to carry the coffin at the funeral and lie to their daughter and lie to the police continuously and repeatedly.
"And the judge decides to sentence him to nine years and he's eligible for parole in six. I'm absolutely outraged about that. Is that all her life was worth?"
Ms Richards, who has travelled the world training law enforcement — from police in NSW to FBI agents in Quantico — called Ristevski's punishment "unacceptable and unconscionable".
She also noted Sarah Ristevski's character reference for her father, submitted to court in lieu of a victim impact statement.
Karen, Borce and Sarah Ristevski pictured less than a year before Karen's murder. Photo / Facebook
"Sarah (Ristevski) actually wrote a glowing reference for him in court and said there was no aggression and no violence and his lawyer also said there was no aggression and no violence prior to her murder," Ms Richards said.
"However, we've got to understand that coercive control plays a part in these cases. They are the most dangerous of cases, and I wonder if the argument (Borce and Karen Ristevski had) had was about separation.
"I'm pretty confident that there would be coercive control there. You're not looking for bruises or signs of physical violence, coercive control is about entrapment and how women
