Speargun double-murder house offered for sale

The Victoria house in which John Sharpe murdered his New Zealand wife Anna Kemp and their daughter Gracie has been advertised for sale.

Marketed as a "charming seaside dream home", the house in Mornington in southern Victoria is listed by real estate agency MPRE in an internet advertisement.

Sharpe, 38, used a speargun to kill Ms Kemp, from Dunedin, and their young daughter in the house in March 2004. He was sentenced last year to a minimum 33 years in prison.

"This adorable two-storey home lets you live the dream lifestyle every day," says the advertisement.

The Herald Sun newspaper said it believed rotting floorboards had to be replaced before the house could be sold and a spiritual cleansing was being considered to rid the house of evil.

Sharpe and Ms Kemp bought the two-bedroom house, 700m from the coast, for A$390,000 ($425,000) weeks before the murder.

One couple who inspected the home at an open day yesterday said they were put off when they realised it had belonged to Sharpe.

"It is just so sad and so gruesome," Lyn Page told the newspaper.

Real estate agent Craig Whitten said he had been ordered by solicitors not to talk to the media about the house. But he said that legally the firm had "to divulge to buyers what has transpired there".

- NZPA