A Gold Coast man accused of murdering his wife amid a bitter divorce row denies disposing of her body after receiving a letter about custody of their children.

August 30, 2019

A Gold Coast businessman has denied murdering his estranged wife and disposing of her body after receiving a letter demanding custody of their children.

Novy Chardon, 34, went missing on February 6, 2013 – the same day her husband John William Chardon, 71, received a letter from divorce lawyers demanding custody of their two children.

The mother-of-two’s body has never been found and more than six years after she disappeared Chardon is fighting a murder charge in the Brisbane Supreme Court.

On Friday, crown prosecutor Mark Green asked Chardon if his account of his wife’s disappearance was fabricated and what he’d done with her body.

“No it’s not (and) I didn’t do anything with it,” Chardon said.

He also denied another person had helped him dispose of the body or became “furious” after he received a letter from Ms Chardon’s lawyers the night she disappeared.

“What set you off on the 6th of February was the fact you thought she was suggesting she was going to restrict your access to the children?” Mr Green asked.

“That played upon your mind. It’s the first thing you said to her when she came home,” he suggested.

“No … I was just curious about what she told her lawyer (but) I knew it could never happen … It was on my mind,” Chardon replied.

The court heard Ms Chardon ignored her husband when he tried to discuss the matter.

“She said ‘I’ve got to go away. I am going away’,” Chardon said.

Chardon had thought the couple had agreed on joint custody of his children and had offered his wife a $3.5 million divorce settlement.

But the letter he received on February 6 demanded 50 per cent of all his assets, including their Upper Coomera home, two factories and other investments.

Ms Chardon also wanted half the company Chardon started in 1986 with his first wife, Maureen.

The jury heard after his wife’s disappearance, Chardon flew to Indonesia to sort out a visa that would permit him to stay in the country for 12 months.

He told the court he’d negotiated a sand mining deal worth $300 million to mine 200 million tonnes of sand.

Earlier, Chardon said he became aware his wife was going out with a man named Ben in mid-2012, but was supportive of their relationship.

“She would go away with Ben for two, three, four days and then come back home,” he said.

”She would come home and hand me hotel bills and restaurant bills and I would transfer the money into her account .. and I was happy about it,” he said.

The court heard Chardon and his wife were separated but lived in the same house to care for the children.

Chardon said his wife never worked and he gave her “very good allowance every week”.

Problems began developing in their “really, really good marriage” in 2009 after his wife started having panic attacks.

He said he took his wife to a psychiatrist who prescribed “strong personality stabilising tablets”.

The court has heard the day after Ms Chardon disappeared, Chardon cleaned the carpet in his wife’s bedroom.

Mr Kimmins said Chardon was “clean freak and at a different end of the spectrum to his wife”.

“Some say I’m OCD, others reckon I’m anal,” Chardon said.

The trial continues on Monday.