Sharon Fulton’s husband Raymond Reddington to die in prison after being given life sentence for her murder in Perth
A Perth man convicted of murdering his wife and the mother of his four children four decades ago has been sentenced to life imprisonment; This means he will likely die behind bars while battling cancer and other health problems.
Raymond Reddington, formerly known as Robert Fulton and Maxwell Fulton Found guilty of Sharon Fulton’s murder in FebruaryDisappeared without a trace in 1986.
Fulton was 39 and a devoted mother when she disappeared, but Reddington told police, family and friends that she had eloped with another man after he dropped her off at a train station in Perth.
Instead the jury accepted the prosecutor’s claim that he killed her at their Duncraig home after learning she planned to leave him and would receive a significant portion of the couple’s assets in the divorce settlement.
State prosecutors told the Supreme Court jury that Reddington planned Fulton’s death and took out an insurance policy that would make her the sole beneficiary if he died.
He was cheating on her with other women. Fulton found out about this and wanted out of the relationship.
As police investigated her disappearance, Reddington tried to implicate others, pointing fingers at two separate men and even writing a fake letter to Coroner Sarah Linton in 2021 ahead of the inquest into Fulton’s disappearance.
The letter, which was found to contain DNA matching Reddington’s DNA, purportedly belonged to the husband of a friend of Fulton’s and claimed that he “got her pregnant, killed her, and then hid her under a concrete porch.”
During the trial, the court heard Reddington consulted a lawyer and filed for divorce in the months before Fulton’s disappearance, before being informed that as part of the agreement she would be given custody of their four-bedroom Duncraig home, investment properties in Queensland, spousal support payments and custody of their four children.
Prosecutors told the jury that Reddington “most likely” attacked Fulton at their home on March 18, 1986, and “either that day or in the following days disposed of her body in such a way that it was never found.”
She reported him missing three days later and gave police varying information about his last known movements.
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, there has been no information on his whereabouts since.
At the time of his death, Fulton’s children were ages 15, 10, seven and three.
After Reddington was found guilty of Fulton’s murder last month, his sons Derek and Heath said they would never stop looking for him.
“He lived a full life, traveled, prospered, rebuilt, changed his name,” Heath Fulton said of his father.
“He had time privilege. He didn’t have a mother. He didn’t get to see his kids grow up. He didn’t get to watch the milestones. He didn’t live for decades.
“I lived with it. I experienced control, distortion, blame. Silence gave it space. Today, this silence ends.
“Mom, you are not forgotten, you are not erased, you are not just a case file.
“You are our mother, and I promise you and my siblings that I will not stop searching for you and seeking the full truth of what happened to you for the rest of my life.”
In a statement issued following Reddington’s sentencing on Monday afternoon, Acting WA Police Superintendent Jessica Securo of the major crime branch said those who believed time was protecting them were mistaken and appealed for the public’s help in finding Fulton’s body.
“Western Australia Police will continue to pursue criminals for however long it takes,” Securo said.
“Ms. Fulton’s family deserves answers and that’s why we’re appealing for the public’s help.
“You may hold the key piece of vital information detectives need to bring this to a resolution.”
Reddington was sentenced to a non-parole period of at least 20 years, extending to when he is arrested and extradited to WA in 2023.
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