LOVING mother Claire Margaret MacDonald ended her life as a virtual slave by becoming a patient sniper.

With her evil husband Warren’s .22 bolt action rifle at the ready, Ms MacDonald lay in a “sniper’s nest” on her family’s country property for an hour and a half while awaiting her target.

The 38-year-old mother of five children was shaking — she knew she couldn’t miss when her husband stepped into the crosshairs of the telescopic sight.

If she did miss, she could have been the one killed that night.

“If I didn’t do it now, I would be the one who would be dead,” she would later tell police.

Ms MacDonald was dressed in camouflage gear and had concealed herself about 50m away from the family’s Land Rover in a back paddock on their Acheron property, about 90km northeast of Melbourne.

She fired six shots at her husband when he came to check on the vehicle.

As he lay dying she approached and told him how much she hated him for making her shoot him.

It was September 30, 2004.

Homicide detectives charged Ms MacDonald with murder.

She pleaded not guilty and went to trial in the Supreme Court in February 2006, in one of the biggest cases of the decade.

The case features as the first in our series of Trials of the Century (2000s).

Read cases from the 1920s to the 1990s in our special report.

The jury was told Ms MacDonald had lived a fearful life as a virtual servant to her sadistic and dominating husband who controlled her — and their children — through constant fear and torment.

The two had met at Aquinas College in Ringwood, where they became school sweethearts.

But that relationship ended as one of master and slave.

Warren MacDonald had abused his wife physically and psychologically, the Supreme Court was told.

Despite this, prosecutor Ray Elston argued the former primary school teacher murdered her husband, aged 40, in cold blood.

“She said that she had had enough of the way she’d been treated — and the children were being treated — and said, ‘I decided that Warren didn’t deserve to live anymore’,’’ Mr Elston said.

“In a situation of an unhappy marriage where there had been disharmony for quite some time, the accused determined to finalise the matter and in a cold-blooded, determined and carefully calculated way, executed her husband.”

James Montgomery, for Ms MacDonald, said his client was a meek, mild, devoted mother whose husband dominated the family through fear.

“Ultimately he made it clear that if she ever left him, he would put a bullet in her head, bury her in a place where she couldn’t be found and tell people she’s run away,’’ Mr Montgomery said.

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The jury heard how Warren MacDonald ruled over his family.

The shooting happened a day after the family returned from what Ms MacDonald had called a “nightmare” holiday to Kangaroo Island, where the family was forced to wake at first light and go on long hikes, the jury was told.

Mr MacDonald was a harsh militant parent who forced his children — aged between two and nine — to do push-ups as punishment and who once threatened to shoot his crying baby, the jury heard.

Friend Ann Sexton said in evidence the children lived in fear.

Ms Sexton said Mr MacDonald was angry when his wife once went into labour before having prepared his evening meal.

“Warren was out of his tree because he hadn’t had dinner and it was time to eat,’’ Ms Sexton said.

“Claire was crying and upset (during labour) ... he took her by the shoulders and gave her a good shake and said to pull herself together and get on with the job of delivering his child.’’

Ms MacDonald said her husband regularly forced her to have painful sex with him.

He did not let her drink coffee or cut her hair.

She had to take his boots off and make sure his glass was never empty.

And he’d threatened to kill her if she ever left him.

Another of her friends, Pat Brown, said in a police statement: “Claire is a most gentle warm mother. The best mother I’ve ever come across ... Warren ruled Claire and the kids with an iron hand. Warren was a control freak.”

Another friend stated: “(Warren) used to say (to Claire), ‘I’ve got money invested in you, make sure the insurance is right.’ I used to cringe when I heard him say this because it sounded so cold and callous.

“He was talking about a life insurance policy he had on Claire.”

Under cross examination by Mr Montgomery, Anne Marie Sexton described Warren MacDonald as “scary”.

“The children lived in fear of their father,” Ms Sexton told the court.

“(He called Claire) dumb, stupid woman, bitch, whore ... It might have been (for) being late a couple of minutes to pick him up. It might have been that she hadn’t yet organised the dinner. It might have been that one of the kids didn’t have a shirt on.”

Psychiatrist Daniel Sullivan told the court Ms MacDonald’s psychological state of “learned helplessness’’ meant she could not flee.

In his closing address, Mr Montgomery told the jury: “A civilised society is not reflected by the behaviour of Warren MacDonald in his marriage.

“That’s not the way civilised people behave. We suggest a civilised society, which you represent, would not convict her of murder but would acquit her.”

The jury found Ms MacDonald not guilty of murder and acquitted her of the lesser charge of manslaughter.

The jury accepted she acted in self-defence after an abusive 17-year marriage.

Ms MacDonald burst into tears as the verdicts were read out.

“I just want to go home,” a sobbing Ms MacDonald said as she walked free from court.

paul.anderson@news.com.au

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