Vic man jailed 25 years for killing wife

To his kids he was a kind, loving dad.
But John McDonald was also an accomplished liar and manipulator who murdered his estranged wife, then poisoned her memory in the minds of their five children.
McDonald, 70, was jailed for 19 years on Tuesday for the murder of Marlene McDonald 25 years ago.
The Victorian Supreme Court heard McDonald recruited three young, gullible drug addicts to kidnap his wife, then killed her or got someone else to do it for him.
The 36-year-old waitress was last seen alive on December 13, 1986.
Justice Elizabeth Hollingworth said McDonald, who still has his children's loyalty, showed no remorse for his terrible crime.
"On the contrary, you have sought to blacken the name of the victim, your former wife, and to blame several other people for the murder, none of whom are still alive and able to defend themselves," she said.
The judge said McDonald's failure to reveal the whereabouts of his former wife's body continues to distress her family.
The court heard McDonald acted out of jealous obsession after becoming suspicious his wife was having affairs.
He stalked her and falsely accused her of being a prostitute and drug dealer.
He continued to be violent towards her, even after they separated, and encouraged his children to spy on her.
Justice Hollingworth said McDonald resented his former wife for getting on with her life.
His animosity grew to the point that he arranged for her kidnap, falsely telling the trio he recruited he planned to put her in a "nuthouse".
Justice Hollingworth said the planned, cold-blooded killing deprived Ms McDonald of her "most precious right: her right to life".
She said although McDonald's children did not believe he was a violent man, the evidence showed otherwise.
During a previous hearing, they painted him as a kind, loving father and their mother as a bad parent who failed to pay them enough attention.
Justice Hollingworth said she had no doubt McDonald's children will struggle with the jury's verdict and the man they believe him to be.
"Not only did you deprive your five children of their mother, but you have also poisoned their memories of her," she said.
"They do not believe that you have poisoned their minds. But there was much evidence before the court that you are an accomplished liar and a manipulator.
"Since her death, you told the children a series of lies about Marlene, including perhaps the most terrible lie of all - that their mother had simply run away and abandoned them, for her own selfish reasons, when you knew full well that you had murdered her."
Police charged McDonald in 2008 after reopening the case.
Marlene McDonald's mother Edie McEntee told reporters she was relieved but still missed her daughter.
"It would've been lovely to have had her body but that's not going to happen," she said.
Ms McEntee said initially police had not taken her daughter's disappearance seriously.
She said her daughter loved her children and would not have left them willingly.
"What annoys me perhaps the most is how he has manipulated his children to make out that she wasn't a good mother," she said.
"She was a very kind person, she was a loving person and when she lived at home she always protected the younger children and she was very good to them."
McDonald will serve a minimum 13 years in jail.