Travis Barnard: Judge takes just days to throw out claim on dead girlfriend Kimberley Heptinstall’s estate

Travis Barnard — the man who tried to raid his girlfriend’s superannuation account hours after she died — has failed in a brazen bid to claim half her deceased estate under WA’s de facto partner provisions. Earlier this year, the tragic end to the life of Kimberley Heptinstall in 2019, and the callous aftermath enacted by Barnard. Ms Heptinstall was aged just 32 when she went into hospital to have gastric sleeve surgery. She was discharged two days later. But two days after that, she was dead, having suffered an apparent cardiac arrest in bed in the Woodbridge house she shared with Barnard. It was he who called the ambulance. But it was also he who denied that on the same day he logged-in to her superannuation app and made himself the sole beneficiary of the $400,000 fund. He was charged with a single count of communications fraud over that, and despite his denials — at times referring to “bad Travis” who did things without him remembering — he was convicted and jailed for nearly four years. The sentence came with damning remarks from District Court Judge David Maclean, who labelled Barnard “glib”, “superficial”, selfish, “cold-hearted” and “calculated”. But despite that conviction and condemnation Barnard ploughed on with another legal gambit — bringing a civil claim against Ms Heptinstall’s estate by claiming he was her legal de facto. For him to be entitled to anything, the court needed to find he and Ms Heptinstall were in a de facto relationship continuously for two years. And in an attempt to do that, Barnard produced a string of documents, including printouts of Facebook posts he said came from Ms Heptinstall’s account. He insisted that the couple’s relationship had prevailed, despite them living apart for some months. And despite evidence that he had posted on singles sites, and advertised his services as a male escort. During the WA Supreme Court hearing, it was also suggested he may have faked a Facebook page in an attempt to claim on her deceased estate. Posts in the account Barnard had come with did not appear in the Ms Heptinstall’s memorialised account. And the profile pictures appeared to be different. The Heptinstall’s lawyer, Guy Douglas, said in court their belief was those pictures were faked — a claim Barnard denied. In a ruling released this week, Justice Matthew Howard found that Barnard was an “unsatisfactory” witness who “embellished” elements of evidence for his own ends. And crucially he found that between October 2018 and February 2019 the couple had split up and was “not positively persuaded that there was a serious marriage-like relationship between them. His reason for that included evidence that Ms Heptinstall had moved out of their shared home, telling friends the wedding was off and selling wedding items — including his wedding ring. Justice Howard also cited Barnard going to the Philippines on his own, posting on two singles sites and advertising his sexual services. “Representing to the world that he was an unattached single,” Justice Howard said. “I am positively persuaded that between October 2018 and February 2019, Ms Heptinstall and Mr Barnard were not in a relevant de facto relationship. “I consider that the de facto relationship was at an end when Ms Heptinstall moved out of the Balga house. I find that, at that time, Ms Heptinstall did not have a commitment to a future with Mr Barnard. “Further, I find that Mr Barnard considered himself as single or, at the very least, represented himself as such via social media posts.” It took Justice Howard less than two weeks to dismiss the claim.