A Gold Coast millionaire who violently and silently killed his estranged wife as their two children slept after he misunderstood a divorce letter has been jailed for 15 years.
John William Chardon, 72, was convicted of Novy Chardon's manslaughter following a three-week trial in the Brisbane Supreme Court.
The mother-of-two, 34, disappeared from their Upper Coomera mansion on the night of February 6, 2013.
Her body has never been found.
On Wednesday, Justice Ann Lyons said Chardon had shown "no scintilla of remorse" and his lack of respect for his wife and his dishonesty "was truly extraordinary".
"We will never know what happened to Novy that night. You do (but) you've never confessed," she said.
"We don't know what happened to her body. You do (but) you've never revealed its location."
Justice Lyons said Chardon had constructed a web of lies to cover up his actions on the night Ms Chardon disappeared, then "dumped" her body.
"Your two young children will have to live their entire lives knowing not only have they been deprived of their mother but that you killed her, discarded her and then deceived them for more than six years," she said.
Justice Lyons said Chardon had denigrated Ms Chardon at every opportunity and led his children to believe their mother had abandoned them.
"The record must be corrected," she said.
The court heard Chardon had become "enraged" by a letter from Ms Chardon's divorce letter that made it clear he had to move out of the family home.
He also mistakenly thought it said Ms Chardon would control his access to the children.
"We don't know how she died ... (but) the available inference is that she died at your hands," Justice Lyons said.
"You would have to overcome her with some force in order to subdue her."
"There were two children in the house at the time the only available inference is that whilst she died violently, she died silently," she said.
Chardon's trial heard a raft of sensational allegations, including that he had attempted to hire a Filipino hit man, had numerous affairs and asked his daughter to hide a mysterious box said to contain gun parts and handcuffs.
Chardon denied it all, saying Ms Chardon told him she was leaving.
The court heard the Indonesian-born beautician had been deeply unhappy during the last years of her marriage and was preparing for life outside her husband's "dark shadow".
She disappeared at the end of the couple's year-long legal separation, during which Chardon stayed in their home to help with the children.
Prosecutor Mark Green had no direct evidence about how Ms Chardon's alleged murder occurred.
Instead, he told the jury it was the "little things" like Chardon hiring a carpet cleaner the morning after Ms Chardon disappeared and his brief journey to his factory the night before that proved he'd murdered his wife.
However, the jury found Chardon guilty of the lesser charge.
In sentencing, Justice Lyons said she had no confidence Chardon would be rehabilitated.
She read his criminal past into the record, which included six child sex offences and rape.
The court heard Chardon was also convicted of indecent treatment of a child under 12 years old for an offence that occurred six weeks after Ms Chardon disappeared.
"Your bad character has been manifest for all to see," Justice Lyons said.
She sentenced him to 15 years in prison. He will have to serve at 80 per cent and may be subject to no body, no parole legislation.
Australian Associated Press
