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A top barrister and her boyfriend broke up and got back together just weeks before he allegedly bludgeoned her to death in a five-star hotel.
Alice Rose McShera’s body was found in a suite at Crown Towers in Perth at about 11am on Monday, after the 34-year-old was allegedly beaten to death with a blunt object by her boyfriend, Cameron John Pearson.
Pearson, 42, fronted Perth Magistrates Court on Tuesday morning charged with murder.
On Wednesday, his sister Jessica Pearson had tears in her eyes when she told Daily Mail Australia the situation was ‘awful’, but explained her family did not want to comment on the tragedy.
It can now be revealed that Ms McShera and Pearson had been together since January when she represented him during a custody battle for his daughter, who is now almost two.
On Wednesday, the accused killer’s sister Jessica Pearson had tears in her eyes when she told Daily Mail Australia the situation was ‘awful’, but explained her family didn’t want to comment on the tragedy
Alice Rose McShera’s (pictured) body was found in a suite at Crown Towers in Perth at about 11am on Monday, after the 34-year-old was allegedly beaten to death with a blunt object by her boyfriend, Cameron John Pearson
Ms McShera’s friend, who did not want to be identified, told Daily Mail Australia the little girl had been in the hotel room with the couple in the hours before Ms McShera’s death.
She explained the couple were holidaying together in Tasmania in September, before they had a ‘huge fight’ and broke up.
The friend did not know what their argument was about – but said Pearson ‘did stay away for a while’.
The couple, however, rekindled their relationship in October when she asked him to help her move house.
On Thursday last week, they checked into the Crown Towers ahead of a gala hosted by the WA Law Society, which was held on Friday night.
On Sunday, Pearson had custody of his daughter. According to the friend, the couple returned the child to her grandparents at 5pm, went back to the hotel and Ms McShera wrote her last Facebook post.
Cameron John Pearson, 42, fronted Perth Magistrates Court on Tuesday morning charged with murder
On Thursday last week, they checked into the Crown Towers ahead of a gala hosted by the WA Law Society, which was held on Friday night.
‘Spending the night before my next surgery… drinking Dom (Perignon champagne), watching old dvds and loving life,’ she wrote above a photo inside the suite, which included the bottle of wine and a child’s cot.
Later that night, a family member made a desperate call to the hotel urging staff to make contact with Ms McShera.
Hotel staff found her body on Monday morning. Mr Pearson was taken to hospital with what are believed to be self-inflicted wounds, before he was charged with murder.
The friend said Mr Pearson’s parents are ‘devastated’.
He appeared in court on Tuesday, supported by his family.
In Ms McShera’s final social media post, she said she was ‘spending the night before my next surgery…drinking Dom (Perignon champagne), watching old dvds and loving life’
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Ms McShera had more than 10 years experience as an advocate and barrister and was a member of the Family Law Practitioners Association of Western Australia and the Law Society of Western Australia
About half a dozen members of Perth’s legal fraternity sat in the public gallery showing obvious distress.
‘I hope that Cameron is able to remember what happened because … didn’t even realise that he’d been to court that day,’ the friend said.
‘He doesn’t know what’s happened.’
Mr Pearson was not required to enter a plea and twice refused to acknowledge that he understood the charge despite speaking with his lawyer Reid Hogan during the proceedings.
He instead shrugged his shoulders in answer to Magistrate Stephen Butcher’s questions before being led out of the glass-walled defendants’ dock.
Ms McShera worked mainly in Family Court and was based at the Murray Chambers in the Perth CBD, according to its website.
She had more than 10 years experience as an advocate and barrister and was a member of the Family Law Practitioners Association of Western Australia and the Law Society of Western Australia.
She has also appeared in the WA Supreme Court of and Magistrates Court and previously worked as an associate to a WA Family Court judge.
Ms McShera’s family (pictured) were also seen at the cramped courthouse alongside supporters of both Pearson and Ms McShera
