Husband found guilty of murdering his wife 40 years after she went missing

The husband of missing woman Sharon Fulton has been found guilty of her murder, 40 years after she vanished from their Duncraig home.

Raymond Reddington – previously known as Robert Fulton and Maxwell Fulton – was accused of killing his then 39-year-old wife Sharon Fulton in 1986.

He denied the accusation and took the matter to trial three weeks ago, but it took a jury just four hours to reach a guilty verdict which they delivered on Thursday in the Supreme Court of WA.

Cold case detectives re-opened the case into Fulton’s disappearance following a Coroner’s Court verdict that she likely met with foul play.

Her body has never been found, and her disappearance has been the subject of two police investigations – one in 2007 and another in 2017 – as well as the coroner’s inquest in 2022.

Despite extensive inquiries by police and family and comprehensive media coverage, there has been no information regarding her whereabouts since her disappearance.

Reddington, 79, who uses a wheelchair and needed assistance from headphones to listen to the trial proceedings, showed no emotion as the verdict was read out.

Throughout the trial, the court heard how Reddington lied about having dementia when he was questioned by police in 2017, claiming not to recall any of the events leading up to her disappearance.

Prosecutors claimed Reddington had become privy to the fact that Fulton had consulted a solicitor in the months leading up to her disappearance and filed for divorce before being advised she would likely be awarded their four-bedroom Duncraig home, their Queensland investment properties, spousal maintenance payments and custody of their four children as part of the settlement.

Stanwix told the jury that Reddington “most likely” attacked Fulton in their home on March 18, 1986 and that “either on that day or in the days following, disposed of her body in a way that meant it has never been found”.

He reported her missing three days later and gave police numerous differing accounts of her last known movements, Stanwix said.

He will be sentenced on a later date, with the court hearing he was suffering with a terminal illness and “was in the last few months of his life and can have no further treatment”.