John Setka’s ex-wife found guilty of making threats to kill him
The former wife of union heavyweight John Setka has been found guilty of threatening to kill the CFMEU boss and ordered to pay a non-conviction fine of $1500.
In a hearing at the Melbourne Magistrates Court on Friday, Magistrate Leon Fluxman said Emma Walters, 47, had uttered the threats to private investigator Adrian Peeters, knowing that he would probably fear that she would carry out the act.
The charge of making threats to kill had therefore been proven, he found.
Emma Walters leaves the Melbourne Magistrates Court on Friday after being found guilty of threatening to kill her ex-husband John Setka and fined $1500. AAP
But Mr Fluxman spared Ms Walters of a conviction, after concluding that the seriousness of the offence was somewhere between low- and mid-range, and that Ms Walters was “plainly a victim of family violence” and had consequently been “at the end of [her] tether”.
“Ms Walters, you must now focus on yourself, your children, your education and your working prospects,” Mr Fluxman said before issuing the sentence.
‘Willing to deal with the consequences’
The judgment comes after the Melbourne Magistrate’s Court was played a secret recording in November in which Ms Walters said she needed to kill her children’s father “because I have no other solution to the situation I’m in”.
“I know how to use a gun, all right? I just need a gun,” Ms Walters said in the recording made secretly by Mr Peeters.
“I’m willing to deal with the consequences of having to go through the court process of self-defence. I have that capacity.”
Emma Walters entering Melbourne Magistrates Court in November. Simon Schluter
Ms Walters had made the comments to Mr Peeters on March 21 after allegedly inviting Mr Peeters to her home to discuss removing potential listening devices from her property.
Mr Peeters told the court in November that he did not record the first 10 minutes of his visit, but started recording the interaction after Ms Walters said she needed “a piece” – a slang term for a gun – and that she “had to kill the father of her children”.
In November, the court was also shown a video of a police interview of Ms Walters that took place on March 29. During the interview, Ms Walters told the police that she had no intention of killing Mr Setka but had used “florid” language to express her level of concern to Mr Peeters in order to convince him to complete the debugging services for which she had engaged him.
A screen grab from a video of the police interview with Emma Walters on March 29, 2023. Magistrates Court of Victoria
However, during the court hearing on Friday, Mr Fluxman said he rejected that argument.
“In my view, it conveys a threat to kill Mr Setka,” Mr Fluxman said of the “reckless” language used by Ms Walters in the secret recording.
He said whether Ms Walters actually intended to carry out her threats was irrelevant to the charge.
The magistrate said Ms Walters had repeated her threat multiple times and knew what she was doing as she had used the terms “lure”, “self-defence” and “premeditated” when discussing her plans.
He said she had made it “absolutely plain” that she needed a gun to kill her ex-husband and that she needed the murder to look like self-defence to minimise any potential legal repercussions.
In November, Mr Fluxman dismissed the charge of attempting to obtain a firearm without a permit as he said prosecutors had failed to prove what kind of gun Ms Walters was trying to acquire.
That came after police withdrew the more serious charge of attempting to incite others to conspire to kill in August.
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