Prominent Perth lawyer Lloyd Rayney may have begun planning his wife's murder two days before her death, after he stopped intercepting phone calls in which she complained about his infidelity, gambling and acceptance of "shady deals from clients", a court has heard.
Rayney has pleaded not guilty in the West Australian Supreme Court to the wilful murder of his 44-year-old wife.
The former Supreme Court registrar went missing on August 7, 2007 after leaving her weekly bootscooting class.
Continuing his opening address on Tuesday, prosecutor John Agius QC said Rayney had been intercepting and recording his wife's phone calls in which she described him as a "wicked man" who "slept around" and accepted "shady deals from clients" including a deal related to Hancock Prospecting.
"I am living with a snake ... It's intolerable," she said in an email days before her death.
Mr Agius said Rayney had also lost $46,800 in one year gambling on anything from volleyball to the Logies and reality television show Dancing On Ice.
The prosecution alleges Ms Rayney believed her husband had a big secret and she was going to use information she had against him to keep custody of their children and their home after their divorce.
Mr Agius said the phone interceptions stopped on August 5, suggesting it was at that time Rayney may have decided to murder his wife, following her demands that he move out of the family home and that she be able to see his financial records.
Although police never found the alleged recordings, the man who installed the devices would testify they were made, Mr Agius said.
The prosecution said Ms Rayney suffered fatal head, spinal and neck injuries before being dragged by the arms and feet to the back seat of her car and then being buried at Kings Park.
During the move, her bra collected soil, her hair picked up seed pods and fragments of paint in red brick dust particles were collected in scratches on her boots which provided "traces to indicate where she had been".
Mr Agius said Ms Rayney had been intentionally buried "head down, feet up" to encourage quick decomposition.
Her body was found on August 15.
A card with Rayney's name on it and "The Queen" written on the back was also found near the grave site.
It had been used for a game of celebrity heads at a party Rayney attended before his wife's death, Mr Agius said.
He said either Rayney dropped the card at the site on the night Ms Rayney was murdered, dropped it before her murder while looking for a grave site, or dropped it later while checking on the grave.
Rayney's lawyer David Edwardson QC has said he will not be making an opening address.
The former chief justice of the Northern Territory Supreme Court, Brian Martin, is presiding over the trial without a jury.
Rayney has been granted bail until the conclusion of the prosecution case.
