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The teenage daughter of murdered Melbourne mother Samantha Fraser has confronted her murderous father in court.
Adrian Basham, 44, murdered his estranged wife in the garage of her parents’ home on Phillip Island on July 23, 2018, then made it look like suicide.
On Monday, his 13-year-old daughter Jemima stood before him in the Supreme Court of Victoria to tell him his actions would not break her.
“I’m here to tell you I’m a fighter,” she told Basham, who complained during his hearing before the Supreme Court of Victoria.
Samantha Fraser was a loving mother who would never have committed suicide, a court heard
It was Mrs Fraser’s devotion to her children that immediately questioned her alleged suicide.
Her battered body was found hanging from the garage door of her parents’ fortified Seagrove Way home on Phillip Island – southeast of Melbourne.
Basham had struck while her parents were traveling to the United States.
Police claimed he snuck into the garage when Mrs. Fraser returned home after meeting friends.
Adrian Basham was found guilty of murdering his estranged wife Samantha Fraser
DNA evidence showed Basham’s biological material was found under both fingernails of Mrs Fraser’s hands.
Basham had long denied murdering Mrs. Fraser, but in the end it took the jury just over a day to find him guilty of the calculated murder.
Jemima, then 9 years old, had been waiting for her mother at the school flagpole with her April 7 sister and brother Rex, 5, the day their mother was murdered.
The children now live with their elderly grandparents, who have also issued strong victim statements to their daughter’s killer.
Jemima told her father that she had gone to court to make sure her mother would get justice.
The teen repeated the words “I struggled” three times before finishing her sentence and fighting back tears to condemn her father’s murderous actions.
“I’ve struggled with anxiety and even suicidal thoughts, but I’m here today to show people that I’m a fighter and we will get justice for my mother,” she told Basham.
Samantha Fraser fought hard for her life, but couldn’t overpower the hulking beast that killed her
Adrian Basham is accused of killing Samantha Fraser (pictured) at her Phillip Island home in 2018
Jemima described to her father the cruel taunts she had received from her classmates in the years since he killed her mother.
“I bet her mother isn’t even dead and she’s just doing it to get attention,” one child told her.
“What if Jemima, like her father, goes mad and kills us. What are you going to do, cry to your mama about it? Fatherless behavior. Go kill yourself like your mother did.’
Jemima outlined the three reasons that motivated her to face her ruthless father.
“To get justice for the life Mama deserved. For my friends and family… For me. I’ve struggled… in the years since my mother was kidnapped. And even with the support, it’s so unbelievably difficult,” she said.
Jemima told Basham that she spent four long months putting together the words she wanted him to know.
“He killed my mother. He took Sammy’s life and destroyed so many others in the process. Just the thought that even with the unlimited amount of love my mother had from everyone in her life, she could be taken away in minutes is sickening,’ Jemima said.
“And to be here in court because it’s true is another thing. I had snatched my whole life. I lost my mother, a father, my social life and a chance at a normal future.’
Adrian Basham beat and killed his wife before trying to make it look like suicide
Basham Escapes After Killing His Children’s Mother And It Looks Like She’s Committed Suicide
Cowes’ house where Samantha Fraser was allegedly murdered in 2018
The court heard that Jemima’s younger siblings had endured a similar torment, with little Rex being so afraid of his father that he made a fortress in his bed during his father’s trial.
“To keep the monsters out,” his grandmother told the court.
Leading up to Father’s Day, the court heard Rex’s classmates beating him with disgusting comments.
Rex came home from school very upset because a boy asked him what to write on his Father’s Day card and suggested that he say, ‘Thank you Dad for killing Mommy,’ Samantha’s mother Janine Fraser told the court.
April, now 9 years old, told the court that her father had “taken the best of her heart.”
But in a slap in the face to his children, the court learned that Basham was still trying to apologize for his wife’s murder.
In an extraordinary claim, not presented to the jury that found him guilty, the court heard Basham claim that it was his wife who asked him around the day he was going to kill her.
His attorney Ashley Halphen further alleged that Basham acted “spontaneously” when he beat up, murdered and hung his estranged wife from the garage door of her childhood home.
“It makes sense, it’s reasonable that he visited the property for a non-violent purpose,” Halphen said.
A GoFundMe page was founded in hopes of helping the Frasers provide everything the children would have enjoyed financially if their mother was still alive.
The plea hearing had to be halted after Basham refused to pipe down from prison.
It will go to court next month.