A Sydney woman who hacked up her husband with an axe has told a jury her eldest son, who helped dispose of the body, had nothing to do with the killing.
The torso, legs and one arm of 47-year-old Revesby man Wayne Robert Chant were found dumped in three separate locations more than 16 years ago.
His wife, Joyce Mary Chant, 57, has pleaded not guilty to his shooting murder, but guilty to a charge of improper interference with human remains.
Crown prosecutor Mark Hobart, SC, told jurors at her NSW Supreme Court trial that Chant killed her husband some time between the beginning of August 1992 and October 6 the same year when the first of his body parts were found.
He said after shooting her partner of 22 years, Chant dismembered the torso with an axe before dumping the "headless, armless, legless torso".
Other body parts were kept in freezers at the couple's home before later being hidden at various sites around NSW.
Chant kept her husband's head, which she placed in an esky filled with cement in her backyard, he said.
Later, her son Jamie Chant, who was in juvenile detention at the time of the killing, helped her dispose of it, the court has been told.
In an electronically recorded interview with police on November 11, 2007, Chant stressed to officers that her son had nothing to do with his father's death.
"He only knew about it afterwards - probably, maybe a year later when he came home (from juvenile detention)," she said at the time.
"There was a smell - he didn't know what the smell was, so I told him.
"Then he helped me dispose of parts - apart from his hands - I have no idea where they are."
The jury was also played a recording of Chant discussing with sons Jamie and Craig how to avoid paying Mr Chant's funeral expenses.
"So what now? Why do they have to give the body back? He's been gone for that long," Craig is heard asking his mother.
"I think it would look a little bit funny, wouldn't it? It would arouse suspicion," Chant replies.
Craig Chant is expected to give evidence this afternoon.
The trial continues.
