Former Bermuda prosecutor Lloyd Rayney has told Australian television news that his life has been "beyond a nightmare" since he was named as the prime suspect in the murder of his estranged wife.

"It came as a complete surprise; shocked and dumbfounded is the best way I could describe it. I am still shocked by that," the 45-year-old told the Seven Network's Today Tonight programme.

Detectives named him as the only suspect in the murder of West Australian Supreme Court registrar Corryn Rayney, 44, in September because, they said, evidence suggested she was most likely killed at their home.

Mr. Rayney — who lived in Bermuda with his wife from 2003 to 2004, when he worked as a senior Crown counsel — told the news show that the impact had been devastating for him and the couple's two daughters, aged ten and 13.

"It's beyond a nightmare," he said. "I couldn't dream that anything like this could ever happen and it having happened, now it doesn't go away.

"Absolutely I did not kill Corryn, I had nothing to do with her death, or her disappearance. All I can do is battle on as best I can, and as to what happens in the future, I really don't know. I am literally at the mercy of the police service."

His wife's body was found in a bush grave in Perth's Kings Park on August 16 following her disappearance from a line dancing class on August 7.

The house the couple still shared in Como was searched several times and Mr. Rayney was charged with intercepting the home phone, a matter for which he will appear before the courts next month.

Mr. Rayney said people had been genuinely sympathetic before he was named as the only suspect. "The impact after the announcement about me was made was swift and immediate," he said. "I have never known another instance where a person has been named as the only suspect."

He said people now pointed and stared at him and his daughters or hurled abuse.

"I don't go out very often now. I wouldn't call myself a hermit, but I know the way people view me when I walk down the street.

"I want this solved as much as anybody does. It is not just Corryn, my wife, who has been killed, it's the children's mother.

"Public opinion is important in many different ways. I would like to walk down a street of Perth one day, with our girls, and not have people point a finger and say: 'He's the person that must have done it because I heard the police say so'."