‘Never knew’: Wife of Maria James’s lover tells court about affair

The wife of a man having an affair with murdered woman Maria James at the time of her death said she had no idea about her husband’s relationship with the bookshop owner.

Stojanca Macevski told a coronial inquest on Friday that she found out her husband was cheating on her when she was told by police officers investigating Mrs James’s death.

Mrs James was found stabbed 68 times in her bedroom behind her Thornbury bookshop on June 17, 1980.

Her lover, Peco Macevski, is a person of interest in the cold case, which has been reopened.

Mrs Macevski, who has been married to Mr Macevski for almost 50 years, said she was told about the affair by police that February.

“I never knew,” she said.

“I asked him, ‘Is that true?’ He said, ‘Yes, it was true, and I’m sorry.’”

“Nothing more to discuss. He’s still with me, I’m still happy, I was still having a good life now – and then.”

Mr Macevski is one of six persons of interest in the inquest, along with convicted killer Peter Keogh, who lived in the area at the time and later stabbed his girlfriend to death; Father Anthony Bongiorno, who allegedly sexually abused Mrs James’s son, Adam, and who her son says she planned to confront; Father Thomas O’Keeffe, who was at the same parish and who witnesses claim had a capacity for violence; Telecom worker Lyle Perkins; and Mario Falcucci, who argued with Mrs James on the morning of the murder.

Mr Macevski was working as a real estate agent at Peters P Peters near Mrs James’s bookshop in June 1980.

His former colleague Con Sirinotis told the court he spent the morning with Mr Macevski on the day she was killed.

He said the pair had bumped into her on their way from the office to Mr Sirinotis’s car before leaving to look at a string of properties.

“Maria was her normal self; she wasn’t upset or worried,” Mr Sirinotis said.

“The last I saw of her was when she walked up High St towards the shop.”

He said he dropped Mr Macevski back off at the office about 12.15pm.

On the day of the murder, Mrs James was on the phone with her ex-husband shortly before 12pm when he heard screaming, counsel assisting the court Sharon Lacy previously said.

He travelled to her house, and after struggling to find a way into the home, he climbed through a window and found her body in the bedroom.

He called triple-0, weeping, from a neighbour’s home at 12.32pm.

Mr Macevski told police that after being dropped at his office around 12.15pm, he was with a client, Nikola Talevski.

Mr Talevski told the court on Friday that he remembered an appointment with a real estate agent from that office around that time but couldn’t remember who it was.

The inquest continues Monday.