The evidence from Maria Russell was given on the first day of an inquest at Wangaratta Coroner’s Court, which is examining the circumstances of Mrs Bergamin’s disappearance from her home in Brien Crescent, Wangaratta, on Sunday August 18, 2002.

Mrs Bergamin had left her marital home at Cheshunt, south of Wangaratta, in May and had taken out an intervention order against estranged husband John Bergamin when she relayed her concerns to Mrs Russell in July, 2002.

“Kath ... told me that John had said to her that if she left him, she wouldn’t get further than the front gate because he would kill her,” Mrs Russell said.

“Kath did not indicate when John had actually said this to her, but from the context of the conversation I believe that this was a recent threat.

“Kath was aware that John was capable of hurting her and she was extremely frightened of him.”

Counsel assisting the coroner, Peter Rose SC, told the coroner there was evidence Mr Bergamin, in the days before his wife’s disappearance, complained about her needing money and said it would be easy to get someone from overseas to give her a drug overdose.

Mr Bergamin allegedly claimed because his wife was on drugs for depression and had tried to kill herself in February, 2002, with a shotgun, her death would not be seen as unusual.

Mr Rose also told of duct tape being found at Mrs Bergamin’s Wangaratta home following her disappearance and it was fashioned in a manner consistent with being tied to a person.

He said one of Mrs Bergamin’s socks, which she had been wearing when last seen, had been found in the home and sent to Britain for forensic tests.

Mrs Bergamin’s housemate at the time of her disappearance, Sandie Riley, gave evidence of Mr Bergamin phoning her about his wife shooting herself in her mouth in a suicide bid.

She went to their home and found Mrs Bergamin with a little bit of blood coming from her mouth and saying “let me die”.

“John kept saying to Kath, ‘look what you’ve done to me, why me?’,” Ms Riley said.

“ (He said) ‘I give her everything she wants.’

“I couldn’t believe what he was saying.”

Ms Riley said had been working on the Sunday night Ms Bergamin vanished and was contacted by Mr Bergamin on the Tuesday morning and he was more concerned about a fire at his property which destroyed a car and shed.

“I just couldn’t believe that he didn’t seem to be worried about Kath,” Ms Riley said.

“John didn’t ask any questions about Kath until the end when he made a half-hearted attempt at being concerned.”

Mr Rose said investigators had concerns about the circumstances of the fire and there had been suspicions about the smell of an accelerant being found at the car.

The inquest continues today.