Son’s secret recordings aired in Perth court
A Perth court heard secret recordings between the accused killer and his son seeking answers about what happened when his mother disappeared decades ago.
Raymond Reddington, formerly known as Robert Fulton and Maxwell Fulton, is accused of murdering his then-39-year-old wife, Sharon Fulton, in 1986.
Cold case detectives reopened the case into her disappearance after the Coroner’s Court ruled she was likely involved in foul play.
Sharon Fulton’s body has never been found and her disappearance has been the subject of two police inquests, one in 2007 and another in 2017, as well as a coroner’s inquest in 2022.
Despite extensive investigations by police and family and extensive media coverage, no information has been received regarding his whereabouts since his disappearance.
Before Thursday’s trial, jurors requested the transcript of a secret recorded conversation between Reddington and his son, Heath Fulton.
Due to technical difficulties, the transcript was not available and the prosecution and defense decided to continue playing the recording in the High Court on Thursday.
A transcript will be available in addition to the recordings for jurors to read as they deliberate.
Defense lawyer Jonathan Davies also suggested using technology to “clean up” the recording to make it easier to understand.
The first meeting between the defendant and his son took place on June 16, 2017.
However, it was difficult to fully understand the dialogue between the two due to the background noise and the type of recording device used.
At one stage Fulton was heard asking his father if Sharon had killed herself, adding that he just wanted closure after his mother’s disappearance.
“Why would she abandon her children? Why would she abandon you?” Fulton is heard asking his father a question on the recording.
“If there was no problem, then why did he do this?”
Reddington is allegedly heard responding, “I believe something happened to her,” before the recording fades out again.
The court heard a second secret recording of a conversation 16 days later on August 2, in which Reddington and his son were heard discussing various daily matters at a Gold Coast apartment.
The discussion then turned to Fulton being concerned about what happened to his mother.
“What upset me the other night was that I don’t like being called a liar,” Reddington is heard saying.
“Nobody else [asking that] “And I’d probably throw them off the balcony.”
Fulton was heard asking his father what exactly happened the day his mother disappeared.
“All I remember is going to day care, going to the train station, and coming home from the train station,” Reddington said in the recording. he replied.
“If my mother wasn’t working, why was I going to nursery?” Fulton asked.
“Why did you take me instead of my mother?
“Was there an argument this morning?”
“No, there was an argument the night before,” Reddington replied in the recording.
The conversation then moves to a nearby restaurant, where background noise again makes it difficult to clearly understand the dialogue.
The trial began on Wednesday, with prosecutor Ben Stanwix telling the jury a series of lies allegedly told by Reddington – including a forged letter to the WA coroner – would be proven by the state within the next three weeks.
However, in his opening statement, Davies told the jury “there is no body, there is no confession, there is no evidence”.
“The prosecution put forward the story of a husband, a troubled marriage and a murder, but the law does not convict on stories, it convicts on evidence, and in this case it is just coincidence,” he said.
More to come.
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