<div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><strong><span>Warning: This story contains details and content that some readers may find distressing.</span></strong></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>A woman has broken down in sobs after she was acquitted over the gruesome murder of a 72-year-old man whose eyes and body were mutilated with a box cutter.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Jodie Hill, 45, faced a trial at Melbourne's Supreme Court over the 2023 death of John Hunter, whose body was found at his western Victoria home covered in a curtain.</span></div></div><div><div id="adspot-mobile-medium"></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><strong><span>READ MORE:</span></strong><span> </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/national/jacinta-allan-husband-drink-driving-victorian-premier-license-disqualified-crime-news/ed70752d-5faf-44b1-a363-f19a96c1b6e9" target="_blank"><strong><span>Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan reveals husband charged with drink driving after fender bender</span></strong></a></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Hill pleaded not guilty to murder with a jury empanelled to decide her fate in mid-November.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Hunter was found dead by a friend about 5pm on January 23, 2023, after he had not been seen or heard from for about three days, prosecutors said.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>In his final weeks alive, the 72-year-old required an oxygen pump to help with his breathing after as he was being treated for lung disease.</span></div></div><div><div class="OUTBRAIN" data-reactroot="" data-src="//www.9news.com.au/national/woman-acquitted-of-mans-gruesome-murder/b16d83c9-50b7-4b27-b8d3-fd9a4a2fa133" data-widget-id="AR_5"></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>When police found Hunter's body he was covered in a bunched-up curtain with a T-shirt pulled over his head, prosecutor Nadia Kaddeche told the jury.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>She alleged a box cutter was used to "carve into the deceased's body" with his genitalia removed, and his eyes gouged out.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Kaddeche said Hill and another man had killed Hunter in his kitchen, at his Dimboola home, before dragging his body to a spare bedroom.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>She alleged DNA evidence had linked her to the scene, however Hill's barrister Tim Marsh raised issues with that evidence during the trial.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>He further said claims his client made to an undercover police officer, while she was in a holding cell after being arrested for the murder, were lies.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><strong><span>READ MORE:</span></strong><span> </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/national/christmas-day-2025-weather-forecast-bureau-of-meteorology-australia/df4ba481-c3f4-4621-8ac0-7e8132c32e5a" target="_blank"><strong><span>Cool Christmas forecast across the south-east but a scorcher in the west</span></strong></a></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>This included Hill claiming the killing was "the biggest rush ever" and boasting that it "fulfilled one of my fantasies and only the start of my fantasies".</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"That's nonsense, she's talking herself up in the environment of the cells," Marsh told the jury.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>He called Hill as defence witness and she gave evidence to the jury in the final days of her trial.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Hill said she watched another man beat Hunter to death using a hammer, and denied she took part in the attack.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"He'd just gone into an absolute rage," she told the jury, saying the man yelled "pedophile" at the victim.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"I was just standing there gobsmacked."</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Hill admitted she touched Hunter on the leg and arm, and then left and went back to her caravan.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Jurors were given the option of finding Hill guilty of murder or manslaughter by unlawful act, or acquitting her of the charges.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>A jury of 14 were whittled down to 12 who retired to deliberate on their verdict on December 12.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>They returned today and found Hill not guilty of Hunter's murder or manslaughter.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>She broke down into sobs and mouthed thank you to jurors as she learnt will would from court a free woman.</span></div></div>