Accused `insured wife before murder`

A man charged with murdering his wife took out a life insurance policy on her behalf two weeks before she was found dead in a watery pit on the family farm, a Melbourne court has been told. Nancy Kay King had spoken about leaving her husband of 19 years, Graeme King, three days before she was found upside down in the pit in 1991, the Victorian Supreme Court was told on Friday.

Nine years later, King allegedly confessed to a table-top dancer that he had killed her, crown prosecutor Daryl Brown said. The allegations emerged on the first day of King's trial. He has pleaded not guilty
to murdering his wife.

The jury was told that Mrs King was issued with a $100,000 life insurance policy a fortnight before her death, and that her husband had taken out the policy on her behalf.

Mr Brown said that three days before her death, Mrs King told her oldest son Jason
she had decided to leave her husband because she was unhappy in the marriage and
believed he was having an affair.
Her body was found submerged in the pit next to a haystack on the family farm at
Tallygaroopna by her then 16-year-old son Peter on June 25, 1991.
Mr Brown said she was discovered wearing a new windcheater, dress rings and other
clothes she wouldn't normally wear on the farm.
The gumboots she was wearing were not muddy - particularly on their tread - despite
the area being wet from recent rain.
Mrs King had bruises and cuts on her body, including an abrasion on her forehead,
but a pathologist was unable to determine what caused her death.
Mr Brown said the lack of mud on her shoes and the lack of evidence that she had
tried to get out the pit suggested she was taken there and submerged in
circumstances in which she was unable to free herself.
The Kings' four children will give evidence in the trial.
The trial continues.