He bashed his wife over the head with a metal bar, buried her in the backyard and kept the crime secret for more than 40 years, and now Geoffrey Adams will finally be jailed over the killing.
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A South Australian Supreme Court jury on Friday found Adams not guilty on a charge of murdering his then 24-year-old wife Colleen in 1973.
But the 72-year-old had already pleaded guilty to her manslaughter after revealing the location of her remains in 2018, under concrete slabs behind their former Maitland home on SA's Yorke Peninsula.
Adams did not give evidence in his own defence, but in a police record of interview played to the court he told detectives he had struck his wife because of her "continuously having a go at me over nothing -- yelling and screaming".
"It had gone on for too long," he said.
After the attack, Adams left her body on the kitchen floor overnight, and the next day began taking steps to conceal her death.
"Within a few hours he dug a shallow grave in the backyard of the matrimonial home where he buried Mrs Adams' body," prosecutor Jim Pearce told the court.
"He then set about laying a false trail - a trail designed to conceal his guilt.
"The accused promulgated a story that had, at its epicentre, that one morning Mrs Adams got up, packed her bags and walked out of the marriage."
The prosecutor said on the night of the killing, Adams had come home from a night out and an argument had developed.
"It was an argument that culminated in the accused striking and killing Mrs Adams," he said.
Mr Pearce said Adams told police that his wife left their home because she could not cope with their two children.
"He told police that when Mrs Adams left she paused to say goodbye," he said.
"He told police that Mrs Adams said to them 'goodbye you little bastards'."
But defence counsel Bill Boucaut QC told the jury there was no issue with the fact that Adams caused the death of his wife.
"You would gather that from the very fact that he has pleaded guilty to manslaughter," Mr Boucaut said.
No issue was also taken with evidence that Adams buried his wife's body and then told a series of lies about what happened.
But Mr Boucaut said just because someone had told what could be described as "despicable lies", that did not necessarily make him guilty of murder.
Adams will return to court for sentencing submissions next month.
Australian Associated Press
