A "femme fatale" with an ability to manipulate men arranged for her former boyfriend to be killed the day before she was due to face him in court, a Victorian court has heard.
Robyn Jane Lindholm, of Reservoir, and Hawthorn gym owner Wayne Amey had a tempestuous relationship that came to an acrimonious end, after which she contracted her new lover and another man to murder him, prosecutors say.
Chief Crown prosecutor Gavin Silbert said Mr Amey was last seen alive on December 10, 2013, the night before he was to attend the Federal Court over a property dispute with Lindholm.
His body was found wedged between boulders at Mt Korong, in central Victoria, a week later.
Mr Amey, a father of one, had been savagely bashed, stabbed four times, then strangled, the Victorian Supreme Court heard.
Mr Silbert said Lindholm seduced Torsten Trabert, of Reservoir, and John Anthony Ryan, of Meadow Heights, so they would carry out the contract killing.
The two men, who are standing trial for murder, have pleaded not guilty.
In opening on Tuesday, Mr Silbert said there was a strong circumstantial case against the men.
Evidence includes CCTV footage of the men entering Mr Amey's secure apartment car park, and witnesses who say the men admitted the killing.
"Both Ryan and Trabert boasted of the part they played up until they were arrested, when they commenced blaming each other," Mr Silbert said.
He said methylamphetamine explained their carelessness.
They agreed to kill a man they had nothing to do with because they were both infatuated with Lindholm, Mr Silbert said.
"She's in the background pulling the strings," he said.
"She had an uncanny ability to manipulate men and was able to get them to do pretty much anything she wanted."
He said Lindholm saw herself as a "femme fatale", and had threatened Mr Amey and tried to enlist others to kill him.
"It was only through the seduction or Trabert, or 'Toots' as she called him, that she was able to do this," Mr Silbert said.
Defence barrister Peter Tehan said Trabert categorically and unequivocally denies he murdered Mr Amey.
He said it was disputed Trabert entered into an agreement with Ryan at the behest of Lindholm, and it was disputed Trabert caused the injuries that killed Mr Amey.
David Hallowes, for Ryan, said there was no issue that Lindholm had a hatred for Mr Amey, but it was hotly disputed Ryan had any agreement to kill him.
The trial continues on Wednesday.
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