Counting Our Dead
In this country, we do not collect statistics about abuse against disabled people.
We do not have hate crime laws.
We do not count our dead.
Violence, neglect and abuse against disabled Australians is an invisible epidemic.
The Disability Clothesline is about making the invisible visible.
Every thirty days a carer murders a disabled Australian in their care.
Our perpetrators routinely go unpunished.
The average life expectancy of an intellectually disabled Australian is 54 years of age.
We are far more likely to be raped or die in acts of violence than non disabled people.
Half of the people shot by police in Australia are mentally ill or disabled.
But the Australian government says that we do not need a Royal Commission into disability violence.
We will call the names of our dead until decision makers in this country listen.
We do not have hate crime laws.
We do not count our dead.
Violence, neglect and abuse against disabled Australians is an invisible epidemic.
The Disability Clothesline is about making the invisible visible.
Every thirty days a carer murders a disabled Australian in their care.
Our perpetrators routinely go unpunished.
The average life expectancy of an intellectually disabled Australian is 54 years of age.
We are far more likely to be raped or die in acts of violence than non disabled people.
Half of the people shot by police in Australia are mentally ill or disabled.
But the Australian government says that we do not need a Royal Commission into disability violence.
We will call the names of our dead until decision makers in this country listen.
2018
Dr Mary E. White
Mary White’s daughter went to the aged care home where she lived and allegedly poisoned her with an overdose of medication.Dr. White was a scientist who studied environment, biodiversity and climate change. She wrote books on environmental sciences and created the Australian Museum’s fossil collection. She also created the Falls Forest Retreat, a rainforest sanctuary in New South Wales.
Dr Mary White – Paleobotanist
Woman, 92, ‘murdered by her daughter’ is an award-winning doctor
Woman, 67, charged with killing her 92-year-old mother in nursing home
Woman charged with murder over death of elderly mother
Former Canberra woman accused of killing her mother granted bail
Famed environmental scientist Mary White allegedly murdered by daughter
Dr Mary White’s daughter granted bail after being charged with her murder
Dr Mary White’s daughter charged with her murder
Nursing home murder: Woman charged with killing her elderly mother
Dr Mary White – Paleobotanist
Woman, 92, ‘murdered by her daughter’ is an award-winning doctor
Woman, 67, charged with killing her 92-year-old mother in nursing home
Woman charged with murder over death of elderly mother
Former Canberra woman accused of killing her mother granted bail
Famed environmental scientist Mary White allegedly murdered by daughter
Dr Mary White’s daughter granted bail after being charged with her murder
Dr Mary White’s daughter charged with her murder
Nursing home murder: Woman charged with killing her elderly mother
Janice 'Jan' Garrett
THE man accused of murdering Raymond Terrace grandmother Janice “Jan” Garrett on the weekend had been living with her.
Ronald John Reeves, 69, is charged with domestic violence-related murder and intentionally destroying the house the pair shared with intent to endanger Mrs Garrett’s life.
According to court documents, Mrs Garrett was allegedly killed between 12.15am and 12.30am on Saturday, July 7, at her Rosemount Drive home.
It’s understood she had been living in the house for more than 30 years.
Neighbours described Mrs Garrett, 76, as a beautiful person with a heart of gold.
It’s understood she had emphysema and usually slept in her lounge room, next to oxygen tanks.
Residents called Triple Zero after hearing an explosion early Saturday morning and seeing flames inside Mrs Garrett’s home.
The case was briefly mentioned in Newcastle Local Court before Magistrate Robert Stone on Monday.
Mr Reeves did not appear and the matter was adjourned to September 6.
'Neighbours claim they saw the 76-year-old’s live-in carer flee the scene as they tried to break in and pull her free from the flames.About 1.30am this morning, police also responded to reports a Nissan X-Trail had collided with a truck on the Pacific Highway five kilometres north of Bulahdelah.
Police are waiting to speak with the 69-year-old male driver of the Nissan, who is also believed to be the deceased woman’s carer.'
https://www.msn.com/en-au/news/australia/man-under-police-guard-after-elderly-woman-dies-in-%E2%80%98explosion%E2%80%99/ar-AAzHePc
Ronald John Reeves, 69, is charged with domestic violence-related murder and intentionally destroying the house the pair shared with intent to endanger Mrs Garrett’s life.
According to court documents, Mrs Garrett was allegedly killed between 12.15am and 12.30am on Saturday, July 7, at her Rosemount Drive home.
It’s understood she had been living in the house for more than 30 years.
Neighbours described Mrs Garrett, 76, as a beautiful person with a heart of gold.
It’s understood she had emphysema and usually slept in her lounge room, next to oxygen tanks.
Residents called Triple Zero after hearing an explosion early Saturday morning and seeing flames inside Mrs Garrett’s home.
The case was briefly mentioned in Newcastle Local Court before Magistrate Robert Stone on Monday.
Mr Reeves did not appear and the matter was adjourned to September 6.
'Neighbours claim they saw the 76-year-old’s live-in carer flee the scene as they tried to break in and pull her free from the flames.About 1.30am this morning, police also responded to reports a Nissan X-Trail had collided with a truck on the Pacific Highway five kilometres north of Bulahdelah.
Police are waiting to speak with the 69-year-old male driver of the Nissan, who is also believed to be the deceased woman’s carer.'
https://www.msn.com/en-au/news/australia/man-under-police-guard-after-elderly-woman-dies-in-%E2%80%98explosion%E2%80%99/ar-AAzHePc
Steve Williams
30 June, 2018: AN AITKENVALE man has been charged with murder following the death of a 68-year-old wheelchair user in Townsville.
Police responding to reports of a disturbance at an unit complex in Aitkenvale about 7:30pm Friday allegedly discovered a man with fatal stab wounds.
The victim was later identified as 68-year-old disabled man Steve Williams.
Mr Williams died after he was allegedly stabbed in the chest during an argument in his Nathan Street apartment.
Police have indicated the argument may have been about alcohol.
A major police operation was subsequently launched to investigate Mr Williams’ death.
A 34-year-old man and 50-year-old woman, both locals, were taken into custody on Friday evening to assist police with their inquiries.
Police on Sunday charged a 34-year-old man, Raynard Kenneth Sambo, with one count of murder.
He will appear in the Townsville Magistrates Court on Monday.
https://www.townsvillebulletin.com.au/news/aitkenvale-man-charged-with-murder-over-stabbing-death-of-steve-williams/news-story/55b8c867b96f47941491221cd7ef67f4
Police responding to reports of a disturbance at an unit complex in Aitkenvale about 7:30pm Friday allegedly discovered a man with fatal stab wounds.
The victim was later identified as 68-year-old disabled man Steve Williams.
Mr Williams died after he was allegedly stabbed in the chest during an argument in his Nathan Street apartment.
Police have indicated the argument may have been about alcohol.
A major police operation was subsequently launched to investigate Mr Williams’ death.
A 34-year-old man and 50-year-old woman, both locals, were taken into custody on Friday evening to assist police with their inquiries.
Police on Sunday charged a 34-year-old man, Raynard Kenneth Sambo, with one count of murder.
He will appear in the Townsville Magistrates Court on Monday.
https://www.townsvillebulletin.com.au/news/aitkenvale-man-charged-with-murder-over-stabbing-death-of-steve-williams/news-story/55b8c867b96f47941491221cd7ef67f4
Rob Duffy
Disability pensioner Rob Duffy's body was found bound and gagged in a Dodd Ct residence in Mooroobool, Queensland
His live in carer, Terrance Barallon, appeared in court charged with his murder.
Police also found a Holden Commodore belonging to Mr Duffy in Port Douglas. A Mercedes Benz also owned by Mr Duffy was found dumped on Eureka St in Manunda.
Police said the results of an autopsy had confirmed Mr Duffy had met with foul play.
https://www.news-mail.com.au/news/carer-face-court-over-gruesome-death-pensioner/3147428/
His live in carer, Terrance Barallon, appeared in court charged with his murder.
Police also found a Holden Commodore belonging to Mr Duffy in Port Douglas. A Mercedes Benz also owned by Mr Duffy was found dumped on Eureka St in Manunda.
Police said the results of an autopsy had confirmed Mr Duffy had met with foul play.
https://www.news-mail.com.au/news/carer-face-court-over-gruesome-death-pensioner/3147428/
Taye, Rylan, Ayre, and Kayden Cockman
Grandfather Peter Miles shot and killed his whole family - his daughter, wife and grandchildren - before taking his own life.Miles' wife Cynda and his daughter Katrina, the children's mother, were also found dead at the family's rural property on the outskirts of the West Australian town of Margaret River in the early hours of Friday, May 11, 2018.
The family had moved to the area after Kat and her former partner, Aaron Cockman, had broken up.
The children were found with their mother in their home, a converted shed on the property.
https://au.news.yahoo.com/thought-dangerous-aaron-cockman-speaks-devastation-margaret-river-massacre-133405627.html
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-05-14/margaret-river-murder-suicide-peter-miles-pain-behind-killings/9756918
The family had moved to the area after Kat and her former partner, Aaron Cockman, had broken up.
The children were found with their mother in their home, a converted shed on the property.
https://au.news.yahoo.com/thought-dangerous-aaron-cockman-speaks-devastation-margaret-river-massacre-133405627.html
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-05-14/margaret-river-murder-suicide-peter-miles-pain-behind-killings/9756918
Nancy Barclay
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Nancy Barclay died on January 24, 2018 in Perth, WA.
Nancy was allegedly strangled by her husband, Harold. She was 83 years old. 85 year old Harold told police that he murdered his wife, who had Alzheimers, to ‘put her out of her misery’. The court made a special exception to grant bail to Harold so that he could attend his wife’s funeral. He remains on bail. Man killed wife to put her ‘out of her misery’ Elderly husband accused of murdering wife of 60 years in their suburban home Man, 85, charged with murdering his dementia-suffering wife, 83 Elderly Perth man charged with murder of 83-year-old sick wife Harold Barclay: Man accused of killing wife who had Alzheimer’s granted bail |
2017
Jonathan Crabtree
Jonathan and his two disabled sisters were allegedly abused by their mother, Maree Crabtree - she has been charged with repeatedly sedating them with prescription drugs. Jonathan's sister Erin died in 2012 but her death was claimed to be a suicide.
Jonathan was injured in a car accident and sustained an acquired brain injury. His mother encouraged him to take opiates and rob a pharmacy. The police say that she killed him by giving him an overdose of opiates and forging a suicide note.
Australian mother arrested after she allegedly poisoned her disabled kids
Gold Coast mother killed two adult children for financial gain, police allege
Maree Crabtree ‘told disabled son to hold up a chemist’ | Daily Mail Online
Mum, 51, charged with murdering her kids told one to rob a chemist
Mother accused of poisoning her disabled adult children to death bagged $500k in insurance
‘Killer mum’ claimed $500k in insurance for disabled kids
Mum allegedly poisoned two children, prepared suicide note
Queensland mother allegedly murdered her two children with disabilities for money
Mother charged over children’s murders
QLD mother charged with murder, torture after allegedly poisoning two children to death
Friend says murdered Jonathon Crabtree was ‘full of life’
Jonathan Crabtree tried to call best mate an hour before his death
Australian mother arrested for the alleged murder of her two disabled children
Gold Coast mother killed two adult children for financial gain, police allege
Son of murder-accused had been ‘trying to pick up his life’ before he was found dead
Pictured: Disabled siblings ‘poisoned to death by rat-loving mother’
Australian mum ‘poisoned, killed disabled children for financial gain’, police claim
Murder-accused mother used prescription drugs to control children: police
Police say murder-accused mum helped son secure $200,000 disability benefits, then staged his suicide
Mum accused of disabled kids’ murder said one got Autism from a needle
Australian woman kills two ‘disabled’ adult children for financial gains
Mum partied as Erin died alone
Father of murdered siblings tried to have his son put in care
The missing Sprite cup in the police case against an accused double murderer
Jonathan was injured in a car accident and sustained an acquired brain injury. His mother encouraged him to take opiates and rob a pharmacy. The police say that she killed him by giving him an overdose of opiates and forging a suicide note.
Australian mother arrested after she allegedly poisoned her disabled kids
Gold Coast mother killed two adult children for financial gain, police allege
Maree Crabtree ‘told disabled son to hold up a chemist’ | Daily Mail Online
Mum, 51, charged with murdering her kids told one to rob a chemist
Mother accused of poisoning her disabled adult children to death bagged $500k in insurance
‘Killer mum’ claimed $500k in insurance for disabled kids
Mum allegedly poisoned two children, prepared suicide note
Queensland mother allegedly murdered her two children with disabilities for money
Mother charged over children’s murders
QLD mother charged with murder, torture after allegedly poisoning two children to death
Friend says murdered Jonathon Crabtree was ‘full of life’
Jonathan Crabtree tried to call best mate an hour before his death
Australian mother arrested for the alleged murder of her two disabled children
Gold Coast mother killed two adult children for financial gain, police allege
Son of murder-accused had been ‘trying to pick up his life’ before he was found dead
Pictured: Disabled siblings ‘poisoned to death by rat-loving mother’
Australian mum ‘poisoned, killed disabled children for financial gain’, police claim
Murder-accused mother used prescription drugs to control children: police
Police say murder-accused mum helped son secure $200,000 disability benefits, then staged his suicide
Mum accused of disabled kids’ murder said one got Autism from a needle
Australian woman kills two ‘disabled’ adult children for financial gains
Mum partied as Erin died alone
Father of murdered siblings tried to have his son put in care
The missing Sprite cup in the police case against an accused double murderer
Helen Dansie
67 year old South Australian woman Helen Dansie had been a wheelchair user after a stroke more than twenty years ago when she was found dead in a pond at Veale Gardens, Adelaide.
Prosecutors allege that her death was planned because she had 'become a burden' on her husband.
Peter Rex Dansie took out a funeral insurance policy against his wife that covered only accidental death in the first year, searched 'cheap funerals' on the internet and allegedly informed a dental practice that his wife should be taken off the books because she 'wasn't going to be around much longer'.
On the day of her drowning, Dansie had picked up his wife from the nursing home and left a change of clothes, a wallet and an expensive watch in his car.
A judge determined that Dansie was not a flight risk, despite his 23 business and social trips - Dansie allegedly has a Chinese girlfriend - in the past decade. Dansie said that he dived into the pond to save her and that it was 'bloody deep and freezing'. Police say that that could not be the case because the pond was, at the deepest point, only 1.1m deep.
Dansie awaits trial.
https://au.news.yahoo.com/disabled-womans-husband-carefully-planned-her-murder-court-36342728.html
www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/national/police-say-there-are-unanswered-questions-over-death-of-helen-dansie-found-in-adelaide-parklands-pond/news-story/6992336cbec999650640113362a57177
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-09-01/peter-dansie-granted-bail-accused-of-drowning-wife-helen/8865174
Prosecutors allege that her death was planned because she had 'become a burden' on her husband.
Peter Rex Dansie took out a funeral insurance policy against his wife that covered only accidental death in the first year, searched 'cheap funerals' on the internet and allegedly informed a dental practice that his wife should be taken off the books because she 'wasn't going to be around much longer'.
On the day of her drowning, Dansie had picked up his wife from the nursing home and left a change of clothes, a wallet and an expensive watch in his car.
A judge determined that Dansie was not a flight risk, despite his 23 business and social trips - Dansie allegedly has a Chinese girlfriend - in the past decade. Dansie said that he dived into the pond to save her and that it was 'bloody deep and freezing'. Police say that that could not be the case because the pond was, at the deepest point, only 1.1m deep.
Dansie awaits trial.
https://au.news.yahoo.com/disabled-womans-husband-carefully-planned-her-murder-court-36342728.html
www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/national/police-say-there-are-unanswered-questions-over-death-of-helen-dansie-found-in-adelaide-parklands-pond/news-story/6992336cbec999650640113362a57177
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-09-01/peter-dansie-granted-bail-accused-of-drowning-wife-helen/8865174
Leonne Ivanoff
Leonne Ivanoff, 74, was stabbed by her husband, who was found unfit to stand trial. Ben Ivanoff is 78 years old.
Mrs Ivanoff had longstanding mental health issues and was released from hospital four days before she died.
Her husband had been diagnosed with dementia and discussions had been taking place about the need for him to go into respite care.
Police alleged that while there had never been any violence before, the relationship had deteriorated in recent years because of Mrs Ivanoff’s “bickering” and “nagging”.
A police examination of the crime scene located the black plastic handle of a knife under a coffee table a short distance from the lounge where Mrs Ivanoff’s body was discovered.
The blade of the knife was still in her neck, protruding 15cm out the other side.
Mrs Ivanoff had longstanding mental health issues and was released from hospital four days before she died.
Her husband had been diagnosed with dementia and discussions had been taking place about the need for him to go into respite care.
Police alleged that while there had never been any violence before, the relationship had deteriorated in recent years because of Mrs Ivanoff’s “bickering” and “nagging”.
A police examination of the crime scene located the black plastic handle of a knife under a coffee table a short distance from the lounge where Mrs Ivanoff’s body was discovered.
The blade of the knife was still in her neck, protruding 15cm out the other side.
- http://www.theage.com.au/nsw/man-charged-with-murder-after-domestic-incident-on-central-coast-police-20170108-gtnxyf.html
- http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/newslocal/central-coast/man-faces-gosford-court-charged-with-murder-over-the-death-of-a-woman-at-umina-beach/news-story/cfbec8de4559ecd4b1607e93ac6d7f44
- http://www.news.com.au/national/nsw-act/crime/ben-ivanoff-allegedly-snapped-and-killed-his-elderly-wife-for-laughing-at-him/news-story/dbfa9b8935d593df34c58dad3e516796
Shirley Thompson
73 year old Shirley was found lying naked in a pool of her own faeces and urine at her neat brick home in Sydney. She'd been there for weeks.
Her sons, Phillip and David Thompson, are accused of her manslaughter. They stand to inherit 1.5 million dollars from Shirley's estate.
One son is a civilian employee with the AFP and a former NSW police officer. The court heard that the sons were supposed to be her caregivers, but let her die of pressure sores that went down to the bone. There were nineteen of them and Shirley claimed she had only been given a rag to wash herself with and did not remember when she last had a shower. She had bruises to her hips and legs.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5685197/Two-men-charged-manslaughter-killing-denying-palliative-care-hospital.html
https://www.9news.com.au/national/2018/05/03/13/38/greystanes-men-arrested-mother-manslaughter
Her sons, Phillip and David Thompson, are accused of her manslaughter. They stand to inherit 1.5 million dollars from Shirley's estate.
One son is a civilian employee with the AFP and a former NSW police officer. The court heard that the sons were supposed to be her caregivers, but let her die of pressure sores that went down to the bone. There were nineteen of them and Shirley claimed she had only been given a rag to wash herself with and did not remember when she last had a shower. She had bruises to her hips and legs.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5685197/Two-men-charged-manslaughter-killing-denying-palliative-care-hospital.html
https://www.9news.com.au/national/2018/05/03/13/38/greystanes-men-arrested-mother-manslaughter
Ian Fackender
Ian had struggled with schizophrenia for fifteen years when he was shot by NSW police. He was a father of six.
He hadn't taken his medication and refused to answer the door at his home when his family arranged a welfare check. The police let themselves in with a key that his mother had given them.
He slept with a 'Star of David' sword, which was his protection when he was unwell, his mother said.
"When he saw them he grabbed it, I don't know whether he was waving it round or what was happening.
"The police officers then tried to taser him. He was tasered twice and it didn't work. And they started to retreat.
"And the police officer must have had his gun drawn — and he fired. Fired five shots into Ian," she said.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-03-05/police-shootings-and-mental-health-a-potent-tragic-fatal-mix/9493356
He hadn't taken his medication and refused to answer the door at his home when his family arranged a welfare check. The police let themselves in with a key that his mother had given them.
He slept with a 'Star of David' sword, which was his protection when he was unwell, his mother said.
"When he saw them he grabbed it, I don't know whether he was waving it round or what was happening.
"The police officers then tried to taser him. He was tasered twice and it didn't work. And they started to retreat.
"And the police officer must have had his gun drawn — and he fired. Fired five shots into Ian," she said.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-03-05/police-shootings-and-mental-health-a-potent-tragic-fatal-mix/9493356
Danukul Mokmool
Thirty year old Thai national Danukul had held a broken bottle to the throat of an elderly florist and was slashing himself with a pair of scissors when transit police shot him.
His half brother said he had mental health issues and he thought they were caused by drugs. Four hours before his death, he thought his brother was going to hit him with a metal pole.
The family had hoped his health and life were improving in recent years after he enrolled in TAFE and began medication.
“He lived a bad life back then — after he did his time he snapped out of it,” Mr Huynh said.
“He basically stayed at home and minded his own business.
“Honestly every day he’d go to Liverpool, get his medication, come back home and stay on the laptop.”
After his release from jail he even travelled to his mother’s native Thailand to undergo traditional spiritual ceremonies.
Police have launched a critical incident investigation into the shooting.
https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw/cctv-images-of-witnesses-to-fatal-central-station-shooting-released/news-story/973d1ecbb086ecd6987290d0bb72ed98
https://www.news.com.au/national/nsw-act/politics/man-shot-dead-by-police-at-central-station-identified-as-30yearold-danukul-mokmool/news-story/f38afbd090f85c76fac526f29ee75d3b
His half brother said he had mental health issues and he thought they were caused by drugs. Four hours before his death, he thought his brother was going to hit him with a metal pole.
The family had hoped his health and life were improving in recent years after he enrolled in TAFE and began medication.
“He lived a bad life back then — after he did his time he snapped out of it,” Mr Huynh said.
“He basically stayed at home and minded his own business.
“Honestly every day he’d go to Liverpool, get his medication, come back home and stay on the laptop.”
After his release from jail he even travelled to his mother’s native Thailand to undergo traditional spiritual ceremonies.
Police have launched a critical incident investigation into the shooting.
https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw/cctv-images-of-witnesses-to-fatal-central-station-shooting-released/news-story/973d1ecbb086ecd6987290d0bb72ed98
https://www.news.com.au/national/nsw-act/politics/man-shot-dead-by-police-at-central-station-identified-as-30yearold-danukul-mokmool/news-story/f38afbd090f85c76fac526f29ee75d3b
Ozlem Karakoc
Ozlem 'Ozzie' Karakoc was 34 years old when she was murdered in Melbourne, Victoria, on July 14 2017.
Ozzie’s ex-boyfriend, Murat Davsanoglu, allegedly killed her because she had ended the relationship and wanted to marry another man.
He drowned her in the bathtub, and then claimed that they had had a suicide pact (there is no evidence that they ever did).
‘Suicide pact’ man facing murder trial for girlfriend’s bath drowning
‘You left us too soon’: Family pays tribute to young mum found dead in Lalor
Melbourne man ‘drowned partner in the bath in suicide pact’
Vic man to stand trial over bath murder
Tributes pour in for Melbourne mum allegedly murdered by partner
Mother allegedly dumped in abandoned house in ‘suicide pact’
2016
Janice and Robyn Frescura
Janice (68), who had lung cancer, was the mother of Robyn (50), who had an acquired brain injury. The family lived in Booral, Queensland.
Janice’s husband, John, is believed to have shot Robyn and Janice before turning the gun on himself.
A family friend said that John ‘would not hurt a fly’ but had been ‘driven to kill’ the other two because he was suffering from prostate cancer, his wife from lung cancer and they feared Robyn, who was intellectually disabled and could not walk or talk after a stroke, would ‘not be able to survive without them’.
https://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/three-dead-in-booral-shooting/news-story/2fe6b65a718721adc3ddd8747c42d9e5
Three dead in apparent murder-suicide
Father calls police during murder-suicide
Three dead in suspected murder-suicide on Queensland’s Fraser Coast
Janice’s husband, John, is believed to have shot Robyn and Janice before turning the gun on himself.
A family friend said that John ‘would not hurt a fly’ but had been ‘driven to kill’ the other two because he was suffering from prostate cancer, his wife from lung cancer and they feared Robyn, who was intellectually disabled and could not walk or talk after a stroke, would ‘not be able to survive without them’.
https://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/three-dead-in-booral-shooting/news-story/2fe6b65a718721adc3ddd8747c42d9e5
Three dead in apparent murder-suicide
Father calls police during murder-suicide
Three dead in suspected murder-suicide on Queensland’s Fraser Coast
Aaron Pajich-Sweetman
Eighteen year old Aaron Pajich-Sweetman was an autistic teenager who was brutally murdered by two women in 2016. He was lured to the house by Trudi Lenon, a middle aged woman who he knew (and had a friendship with her son) and another younger woman, who will not be named here. One of her motivations was a desire to 'become famous' as a serial killer - she was obsessed with serial killers and had written a badly scripted book on the topic.
Aaron was buried in a shallow grave and Lenon coaxed her son, his friend, into filling in the grave. The boy, aged 13, did not know his mother had been instrumental in carrying out Aaron's murder.
Aaron's murder was one of a long list of young autistic men and boys who have lost their lives to torture and murder. The unnamed murderer had previously made hate speech comments about disabled people and called them a 'waste of oxygen'. Aaron was specifically targeted because of his perceived vulnerability, but his body was discovered within a short period of time due to the close circle of support he had around him.
Both women were jailed for life and one of the women had boiling water thrown on her in prison.
Aaron is fondly remembered and deeply missed by his parents, Keith Sweetman, Veronica Desmond and Sharon Pajich, and remembered by his family, friends, classmates and the autistic community of Western Australia.
https://www.news.com.au/national/western-australia/aaron-pajichsweetman-murder-jemma-lilley-trudi-lenon-sentenced-to-life-in-prison/news-story/6231affec0fe9c52e9796d4899ae56be
https://www.watoday.com.au/national/western-australia/aaron-pajicch-murder-trial-accused-hoped-for-slaughter-fest-court-hears-20171010-gyxlje.html
www.huffingtonpost.com.au/2017/11/01/serial-killer-obsessed-woman-and-accomplice-found-guilty-of-murder_a_23262983/
https://www.watoday.com.au/national/western-australia/aaron-pajich-murderers-thrill-killing-women-to-learn-fate-20180227-h0wqd9.html
Aaron was buried in a shallow grave and Lenon coaxed her son, his friend, into filling in the grave. The boy, aged 13, did not know his mother had been instrumental in carrying out Aaron's murder.
Aaron's murder was one of a long list of young autistic men and boys who have lost their lives to torture and murder. The unnamed murderer had previously made hate speech comments about disabled people and called them a 'waste of oxygen'. Aaron was specifically targeted because of his perceived vulnerability, but his body was discovered within a short period of time due to the close circle of support he had around him.
Both women were jailed for life and one of the women had boiling water thrown on her in prison.
Aaron is fondly remembered and deeply missed by his parents, Keith Sweetman, Veronica Desmond and Sharon Pajich, and remembered by his family, friends, classmates and the autistic community of Western Australia.
https://www.news.com.au/national/western-australia/aaron-pajichsweetman-murder-jemma-lilley-trudi-lenon-sentenced-to-life-in-prison/news-story/6231affec0fe9c52e9796d4899ae56be
https://www.watoday.com.au/national/western-australia/aaron-pajicch-murder-trial-accused-hoped-for-slaughter-fest-court-hears-20171010-gyxlje.html
www.huffingtonpost.com.au/2017/11/01/serial-killer-obsessed-woman-and-accomplice-found-guilty-of-murder_a_23262983/
https://www.watoday.com.au/national/western-australia/aaron-pajich-murderers-thrill-killing-women-to-learn-fate-20180227-h0wqd9.html
Harold Nolan
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Harold Nolan was found dead in his bed - he was 73 years old.
His ex wife, 69 year old Renee Nolan, was taken into custody and later charged with one count of murder. Convinced she was going to be jailed for fraud, she stabbed him to death to prevent him from being sent to a nursing home. Renee Nolan was found not guilty by reason of mental impairment because she was suffering depression and “a pathological level of exhaustion”. She was sent to a secure hospital for 25 years. Woman charged with ex-husband’s murder in Mitcham Killer granny fuelled by depression Money worries drove deluded grandmother to kill sick ex-husband while he slept Ex-wife charged over fatal stabbing Woman, 69, charged with stabbing her husband to death Woman housed in secure hospital for murder http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3867202/Woman-69-charged-murder-73-year-old-husband-stabbed-death-Melbourne-apartment.html |
Andreas Headland
Andreas, a three year old boy with congenital dyserythropoietic anemia, was murdered on October 20, 2016, with his five year old sister, Zaraiyah-Lily Headland. They lived in Yanchep, WA.
Their father, Jason Craig Headland killed both children after crushing an antihistamine into their juice. Headland ended their relationship the week before and told his wife, Anatoria, that he was going to ‘break her heart into fifty million pieces’ and to ‘say goodbye to your kids’.
Hedland was jailed for at least 31 years.
Yanchep father, 35, charged with double murder of his children
A 35-YEAR-OLD father has been charged with the alleged murders of his two children, a boy and a girl aged three and five, at their home in Perth.
The father who ‘stabbed his two young children to death’ in an attempted murder-suicide in Yanchep, Perth
everydayhero: HBF Run for a Reason 2015
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-07-27/jason-headland-sentenced-for-killing-own-children-at-yanchep/8748172
Their father, Jason Craig Headland killed both children after crushing an antihistamine into their juice. Headland ended their relationship the week before and told his wife, Anatoria, that he was going to ‘break her heart into fifty million pieces’ and to ‘say goodbye to your kids’.
Hedland was jailed for at least 31 years.
Yanchep father, 35, charged with double murder of his children
A 35-YEAR-OLD father has been charged with the alleged murders of his two children, a boy and a girl aged three and five, at their home in Perth.
The father who ‘stabbed his two young children to death’ in an attempted murder-suicide in Yanchep, Perth
everydayhero: HBF Run for a Reason 2015
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-07-27/jason-headland-sentenced-for-killing-own-children-at-yanchep/8748172
Martin, Elisa and Maria Lutz
Maria Lutz (43) was murdered by her husband along with her two children, Martin (10) and Elisa (11). Martin and Elisa were autistic and Deaf. They died on October 17, 2016 at the family home in Davidson, NSW.
When Maria didn’t turn up at school for canteen duty, the police were called. They discovered that the Lutz home had been elaborately rigged up with pipes to fill it with carbon monoxide, killing the whole family.
Maria had been planning to leave her husband, Fernando Manrique, and return to her home country. Media painted the family murder as a ‘mercy killing’ until those details were later released.
Davidson deaths: Police investigate murder-suicide at horror home where family of four were killed
Fernando Manrique installed carbon monoxide piping system in his Davidson home
Father turned house into ‘gas chamber’ to kill wife, autistic children, pet dog and himself in suspected murder-suicide
Euthanasia book purchase offers clue into Australian family’s deaths
St Lucy’s School in Wahroonga mourns after murder-suicide of the family in their Davidson home
Brother of Sydney woman gassed to death by husband wants to know why calls for help were ignored
Davidson death house’s grisly layout revealed
‘It’s a horrific thing that has happened to this suburb’: a young family’s death
The shocking details when family of four were found gassed to death
Mother Maria Lutz killed in murder-suicide honoured with posthumous school award
Art helps school recover from family loss
Davidson family murder-suicide ‘rang alarm bells’ for family friends
Davidson murder-suicide: Exhibition featuring autistic children’s art to honour family
Tragic murder-suicide anniversary marked
‘Our families are under pressure’: School rallies one year after horror murder-suicide
When Maria didn’t turn up at school for canteen duty, the police were called. They discovered that the Lutz home had been elaborately rigged up with pipes to fill it with carbon monoxide, killing the whole family.
Maria had been planning to leave her husband, Fernando Manrique, and return to her home country. Media painted the family murder as a ‘mercy killing’ until those details were later released.
Davidson deaths: Police investigate murder-suicide at horror home where family of four were killed
Fernando Manrique installed carbon monoxide piping system in his Davidson home
Father turned house into ‘gas chamber’ to kill wife, autistic children, pet dog and himself in suspected murder-suicide
Euthanasia book purchase offers clue into Australian family’s deaths
St Lucy’s School in Wahroonga mourns after murder-suicide of the family in their Davidson home
Brother of Sydney woman gassed to death by husband wants to know why calls for help were ignored
Davidson death house’s grisly layout revealed
‘It’s a horrific thing that has happened to this suburb’: a young family’s death
The shocking details when family of four were found gassed to death
Mother Maria Lutz killed in murder-suicide honoured with posthumous school award
Art helps school recover from family loss
Davidson family murder-suicide ‘rang alarm bells’ for family friends
Davidson murder-suicide: Exhibition featuring autistic children’s art to honour family
Tragic murder-suicide anniversary marked
‘Our families are under pressure’: School rallies one year after horror murder-suicide
Robert Whitwell
Brittney Jade Dwyer, an 19 year old Adelaide woman, murdered her 81-year-old grandfather Robert Whitney after plotting his death. She stabbed him in the neck and watched him slowly bleed to death - while she did the washing up.
Robert had spent his last moments showing Brittney childhood photos.
Dwyer’s friend Bernadette Burns, from Redbank Plains, southwest of Brisbane, waited in the car and applied make-up while Dwyer went inside the house wearing gloves and carrying a knife.
Supreme Court Justice Kevin Nicholson sentenced the 20-year-old to life imprisonment with a non-parole period of 20.5 years for the murder of her grandfather at his Craigmore home.
https://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/law-order/robert-whitwell-showed-granddaughter-brittney-jade-dwyer-family-photos-moments-before-she-stabbed-him-to-death/news-story/80c1b7ac7dd80740c9abf5b8b5d43aeb
Robert had spent his last moments showing Brittney childhood photos.
Dwyer’s friend Bernadette Burns, from Redbank Plains, southwest of Brisbane, waited in the car and applied make-up while Dwyer went inside the house wearing gloves and carrying a knife.
Supreme Court Justice Kevin Nicholson sentenced the 20-year-old to life imprisonment with a non-parole period of 20.5 years for the murder of her grandfather at his Craigmore home.
https://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/law-order/robert-whitwell-showed-granddaughter-brittney-jade-dwyer-family-photos-moments-before-she-stabbed-him-to-death/news-story/80c1b7ac7dd80740c9abf5b8b5d43aeb
David Veech
David was a client of Lifestyle Solutions, a care provider in NSW. He was only 35 years of age when he died at the Tarlo Intensive Residential Support Service. He was living there because he needed support and supervision.
David died after injecting an unknown quantity of Fentanyl, an opoid analgesic. The Coroner is damning in her condemnation of Lifestyle Solutions and says the inquest examined how it was that David could have accessed the drug that killed him, given that he was living in a facility that was supposed to have provided close supervision and support.
She says that she has no confidence things will change at Lifestyle Solutions.
http://www.coroners.justice.nsw.gov.au/Documents/Veech_findings_redacted.pdf
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-03-27/disability-service-provider-investigated-over-deaths/8388050
David died after injecting an unknown quantity of Fentanyl, an opoid analgesic. The Coroner is damning in her condemnation of Lifestyle Solutions and says the inquest examined how it was that David could have accessed the drug that killed him, given that he was living in a facility that was supposed to have provided close supervision and support.
She says that she has no confidence things will change at Lifestyle Solutions.
http://www.coroners.justice.nsw.gov.au/Documents/Veech_findings_redacted.pdf
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-03-27/disability-service-provider-investigated-over-deaths/8388050
Samantha Kelly
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39 year old Samantha was murdered on January 22, 2016 at Kangaroo Flat, Bendigo, Victoria. She was 39 years old and had an intellectual disability.
Samantha lived with three housemates and her four children. Eventually, the housemates banned her from the main house and forced her to live in a bungalow out the back without the children. Samantha tried to escape but was beaten to death with a hammer. The housemates buried her body and claimed she had run off with a man and left her children (aged six, five, four and 11 months) behind. Peter James Arthur (45) was jailed for 16 years for viciously bashing Samantha to death – fellow housemates Christine (47) and Ronald Lyons (45), who plotted over several weeks to kill her, pleaded not guilty in May. Prosecutors said the motivating factor was Christine Lyons’ desire to become a mother. She had been unable to have children of her own. Christine Lyons was found guilty in June, 2018. |
Loner jailed over murder plot to steal kids
Bendigo man jailed for murdering woman with hammer over custody plot
‘Manipulated’ murder accused deeply regrets hammer killing of housemate
Vic accused killer wanted kids, court told
Vic murder accused said victim walked off
https://www.bendigoadvertiser.com.au/story/5419312/womans-killer-gives-evidence-in-trials/
https://www.9news.com.au/videos/cjh61jtsa00qc0hpd7vctm2kj/three-housemates-murdered-a-mother-to-get-custody-of-her-children
https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/don-t-make-the-same-mistake-as-lindy-chamberlain-jury-murder-trial-told-20180613-p4zl8n.html
https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/christine-lyons-guilty-of-murdering-housemate-samantha-kelly-ronald-lyons-not-guilty-20180618-p4zm49.html
Bendigo man jailed for murdering woman with hammer over custody plot
‘Manipulated’ murder accused deeply regrets hammer killing of housemate
Vic accused killer wanted kids, court told
Vic murder accused said victim walked off
https://www.bendigoadvertiser.com.au/story/5419312/womans-killer-gives-evidence-in-trials/
https://www.9news.com.au/videos/cjh61jtsa00qc0hpd7vctm2kj/three-housemates-murdered-a-mother-to-get-custody-of-her-children
https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/don-t-make-the-same-mistake-as-lindy-chamberlain-jury-murder-trial-told-20180613-p4zl8n.html
https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/christine-lyons-guilty-of-murdering-housemate-samantha-kelly-ronald-lyons-not-guilty-20180618-p4zm49.html
David Orton
David Orton did not die immediately at his group home in Qld. There was a gradual decline, from walking to crawling across the floor, over eighteen months - 41 year old David had cerebral palsy and an intellectual disability. He died in pain, of fecal impaction and salmonella poisoning.
'Mr Orton's family also had expressed concerns regarding his deterioration over a period of 18 months with very little clarity on his diagnosis. They were concerned that he had been inappropriately discharged from hospital at times and there were difficulties regarding the support provided to him. They were concerned that the obvious pain David had was disregarded as "behavioural"...
'As this was one death in the cluster of eleven, the Panel did not explore issues regarding the provision of care and support in these settings in substantial detail.'
The Coroner concludes the inquest with a note that David's support workers were 'well meaning'.
http://www.courts.qld.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0008/566072/nif-orton-d-20180511.pdf
'Mr Orton's family also had expressed concerns regarding his deterioration over a period of 18 months with very little clarity on his diagnosis. They were concerned that he had been inappropriately discharged from hospital at times and there were difficulties regarding the support provided to him. They were concerned that the obvious pain David had was disregarded as "behavioural"...
'As this was one death in the cluster of eleven, the Panel did not explore issues regarding the provision of care and support in these settings in substantial detail.'
The Coroner concludes the inquest with a note that David's support workers were 'well meaning'.
http://www.courts.qld.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0008/566072/nif-orton-d-20180511.pdf
Sarah Hammoud
An inquest that is being held about the death of 22 year old Sarah Hammoud has heard that there were serious misgivings about Sarah's care.
She died in hospital in 2016 with septicaemia, about two months after a care worker reported her support agency to the Public Advocate in Victoria.
The support worker said that she witnessed Sarah being swung out of a maxi taxi using a harness instead of a wheelchair – and that carers “half dragged her and half carried her” into the house using the harness.
She said when Sarah got to the house, she fell over numerous times – “going from wall to wall, bashing into the wall and falling down”.
Both her elbows were very discoloured and one was very swollen, she said.
Sarah had lived in care since the age of 13 and could not communicate, having being born with severe intellectual disability caused by having three X chromosomes instead of two.
She also had cerebral palsy.
An ongoing inquest by Coroner Jacqui Hawkins is examining the appropriateness of her medical care in the last six months of her life, and a decision by Royal Melbourne Hospital doctors to put her in palliative care at age 21.
It is also is investigating the standard of care provided to Sarah by Annecto, the disability provider that operated her residential care home in Melbourne’s western suburbs, in addition to the role of the Department of Health and Human Services.
A volunteer community visitor from the Office of the Public Advocate told the court that the Niddrie shared home that Sarah lived in was one of the more troubling residences she would visit in the region.
Sarah was admitted to hospital with a wound on her elbow and bone infection and the doctors decided she should be discharged back to her residential facility or given palliative support, because she was likely to die. A few days later she arrived back in hospital with a horrific tongue injury with part of her tongue amputated and 'gross evident gangrene'.
She died in palliative care.
https://www.smh.com.au/healthcare/inquest-probes-shocking-incident-involving-disabled-woman-20180221-p4z13z.html
She died in hospital in 2016 with septicaemia, about two months after a care worker reported her support agency to the Public Advocate in Victoria.
The support worker said that she witnessed Sarah being swung out of a maxi taxi using a harness instead of a wheelchair – and that carers “half dragged her and half carried her” into the house using the harness.
She said when Sarah got to the house, she fell over numerous times – “going from wall to wall, bashing into the wall and falling down”.
Both her elbows were very discoloured and one was very swollen, she said.
Sarah had lived in care since the age of 13 and could not communicate, having being born with severe intellectual disability caused by having three X chromosomes instead of two.
She also had cerebral palsy.
An ongoing inquest by Coroner Jacqui Hawkins is examining the appropriateness of her medical care in the last six months of her life, and a decision by Royal Melbourne Hospital doctors to put her in palliative care at age 21.
It is also is investigating the standard of care provided to Sarah by Annecto, the disability provider that operated her residential care home in Melbourne’s western suburbs, in addition to the role of the Department of Health and Human Services.
A volunteer community visitor from the Office of the Public Advocate told the court that the Niddrie shared home that Sarah lived in was one of the more troubling residences she would visit in the region.
Sarah was admitted to hospital with a wound on her elbow and bone infection and the doctors decided she should be discharged back to her residential facility or given palliative support, because she was likely to die. A few days later she arrived back in hospital with a horrific tongue injury with part of her tongue amputated and 'gross evident gangrene'.
She died in palliative care.
https://www.smh.com.au/healthcare/inquest-probes-shocking-incident-involving-disabled-woman-20180221-p4z13z.html
Sukhwinder Ghuman
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Sukhwinder Ghuman, 66, was chased out of her daughter's home after her son in law murdered her daughter and knifed her husband.
Mrs Ghuman was disabled and when he caught her, he knifed her to death on the lawn of a neighbours house in front of shocked witnesses. https://www.news.com.au/national/crime/balwinder-ghuman-in-court-over-alleged-double-murder-in-queensland/news-story/442e6765283945c8caf03514fb4bdda1 |
2015
Robbie Wright
36 year old Robbie Wright died when three other disabled people threw him off a balcony of his apartment in Ringwood, Victoria.
Robbie, who was Deaf, fell twelve metres to his death in 2015. The three other disabled people, Georgia Fields, Jake Fairest and Warwick Toohey, were all found unfit to stand trial. Fairest and Toohey were sent to secure residential treatment facilities, but as there are no facilities for women in Victoria, Fields was sent home under supervision.
Toohey and Fairest have an intellectual disability and Fields is autistic. All three are Deaf.
https://jade.io/article/550744
https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/murder-accused-was-shared-girlfriend-of-victim-and-coaccused-20150817-gj0xs4.html
https://www.news.com.au/national/victoria/a-deaf-victorian-man-will-spend-25-years-in-custody-over-ringwood-murder/news-story/62261bb3d267be6bd16d6e53caed45c4
Robbie, who was Deaf, fell twelve metres to his death in 2015. The three other disabled people, Georgia Fields, Jake Fairest and Warwick Toohey, were all found unfit to stand trial. Fairest and Toohey were sent to secure residential treatment facilities, but as there are no facilities for women in Victoria, Fields was sent home under supervision.
Toohey and Fairest have an intellectual disability and Fields is autistic. All three are Deaf.
https://jade.io/article/550744
https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/murder-accused-was-shared-girlfriend-of-victim-and-coaccused-20150817-gj0xs4.html
https://www.news.com.au/national/victoria/a-deaf-victorian-man-will-spend-25-years-in-custody-over-ringwood-murder/news-story/62261bb3d267be6bd16d6e53caed45c4
Zvonimir Petrovski
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Zvonimir lived with a younger woman, Anna Horneshaw who called him her 'father figure'. One day she asked Zvonimir for cigarettes. He refused. Angry, she stabbed him to death.
She was 27 years old and four months pregnant when she stabbed him 22 times with his large boning knife. The judge described the killing as 'completely unprovoked'. Horneshaw was jailed for 17 years. 17 years jail for woman who stabbed ‘father figure’ to death in cigarette row Woman jailed for killing housemate in ‘fit of rage’ over cigarette money |
Norma Ludlam
Hervey Bay carer denies murdering frail friend
2018 - POLICE are preparing to call 95 witnesses in the trial of a man accused of killing the elderly neighbour he was caring for.
Frederick Ronald Sinfield is charged with the murder of 75-year-old Norma Ludlam, who died after being found on the floor of her Eli Waters home in July, 2015.
Defence lawyer Angus Edwards told Hervey Bay Magistrates Court on Wednesday Ms Ludlam was already dying when his client arrived at her house.
He said his client called an ambulance, got her to squeeze his hand, and then opened the door for the paramedics.
Ms Ludlam later died in hospital.
Police allege the victim was hit on the head with an object, and suffered other unexplained injuries.
The accused murderer, now aged 62, has been in jail for about two-and-a-half years awaiting trial.
Mr Edwards yesterday made an application to cross-examine 16 of the police witnesses prior to the actual trial to clarify some facts.
"My client is charged with murder, he faces a mandatory life term if convicted," Mr Edwards told Magistrate Stephen Guttridge.
"So that sets the context of my application."
The court heard the elderly woman suffered from osteoporosis, which caused her bones to become weak and fragile, among other health problems.
When questioned by police officers after Ms Ludlam was taken to hospital, Mr Sinfield said his neighbour sometimes suffered from falls.
Having been her casual carer up until that point, Mr Sinfield told police he would likely earn a full-time carer allowance, given the seriousness of her injuries.
Mr Edwards said his client had never made admissions to hurting his neighbour, and was only charged because his version of events did not match with "circumstantial evidence."
Mr Edwards criticised police for not warning Mr Sinfield he was a suspect prior to interviewing him.
Details of what some of the other witnesses have told police regarding the alleged murder were revealed in court on Wednesday.
One witness said Ms Ludlam and Mr Sinfield had some conflict, and she was unhappy he had used her bank card to pay bills.
Another witness said Ms Ludlam was indecently touched by the alleged killer after he helped her out of the shower, days before her death.
A neighour recalled being woken by barking dogs on the night of the alleged crime, and hearing a male voice yelling and a woman screaming.
Mr Guttridge granted Mr Edwards access to some of his requested witnesses for pre-trial cross-examination, which will take place in the coming months.
Gloria Reilly
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69 year old Gloria had chronic heart and lung disease and lived at a home in Geraldton with her son, Damien Reilly.
Gloria was frail – when Damien Reilly shoved her in the chest during an argument and held her down, she was unable to breath. Reilly returned to find his mother lying on her bed, lifeless. Reilly was jailed for twelve months for ‘endangering the life, health or safety’ of his mother after authorities failed to gather enough evidence to directly link the assault to her death. She died on November 13, 2015. Son jailed for attacking mum who then died Son pleads not guilty over 69yo mum’s death Son jailed for attacking mum who then died Son gets 12 months’ jail for bashing mother found dead |
Simone Mottram
Simone Mottram’s son, Bradley Craig Mottram, bludgeoned her with a bottle and stabbed her with a kitchen knife.
She was living in Inverell and was 51 years old when she died on October 19, 2015.
He was sentenced to 13-and-a-half to 18 years.
‘Troubled’ NSW man jailed for killing mum
Bradley Craig Mottram jailed 13 years for killing mum
Simone Mottram’s murder by her own son still ‘tortures’ her father
‘Totally inadequate’ sentence questioned by relatives as son jailed for killing his mother
Trial tipped in Mottram murder case
She was living in Inverell and was 51 years old when she died on October 19, 2015.
He was sentenced to 13-and-a-half to 18 years.
‘Troubled’ NSW man jailed for killing mum
Bradley Craig Mottram jailed 13 years for killing mum
Simone Mottram’s murder by her own son still ‘tortures’ her father
‘Totally inadequate’ sentence questioned by relatives as son jailed for killing his mother
Trial tipped in Mottram murder case
Gail Parnell
THE injuries Gail Parnell died from were entirely survivable.
The slash to her chest was minor and the stab wound to her abdomen could have been surgically repaired with medical intervention.
But tragically, the person who inflicted those wounds, Gail’s mentally ill daughter, Keren Parnell, refused to let her father, John Parnell, call an ambulance until it was too late.
Judge Roy Ellis on Friday jailed Keren Parnell for a maximum of eight years and three months, with a non-parole period of four years and three months after she pleaded guilty in February to manslaughter by reason of substantial impairment due to an abnormality of the mind.
Keren had become angry her parents were pandering to her brother and jealous they loved him more than her when she stabbed her 73-year-old mother, who was an advocate and volunteer for mental health services in the Hunter, at a home in The Sanctuary on Kalaroo Road, Redhead on October 10, 2015.
Public Defender Peter Krisenthal said Keren Parnell’s mental state at the time of the killing was “critically important” and “significantly reduced” her moral culpability.
Keren Parnell had a “strained and complicated” relationship with her parents, the court heard, with all of her previous brushes with the law and mental health admissions relating to assaults on either her mother or father.
"In spite of what has happened I want the court to know that I believe Keren was truly unwell and that she didn't have the ability to change because of her mental disorder,” John Parnell told the court in a victim impact statement.
"She needed help and guidance beyond what Gail and I could do for her.
"Even if Keren doesn't recover I will continue to care about her.
"She is my daughter and she will be included in my will.
"Gail was a beautiful person, she is missed terribly."
Keren Parnell will be eligible for parole in 2020.
https://www.theherald.com.au/story/4471192/guilty-plea-over-mums-death-court/
https://www.theherald.com.au/story/4734205/mothers-killing-avoidable/
https://goo.gl/BjnHAk
http://www.police.nsw.gov.au/news/latest_releases?sq_content_src=%2BdXJsPWh0dHBzJTNBJTJGJTJGZWJpenByZC5wb2xpY2UubnN3Lmdvdi5hdSUyRm1lZGlhJTJGNDkxNzQuaHRtbCZhbGw9MQ%3D%3D
The slash to her chest was minor and the stab wound to her abdomen could have been surgically repaired with medical intervention.
But tragically, the person who inflicted those wounds, Gail’s mentally ill daughter, Keren Parnell, refused to let her father, John Parnell, call an ambulance until it was too late.
Judge Roy Ellis on Friday jailed Keren Parnell for a maximum of eight years and three months, with a non-parole period of four years and three months after she pleaded guilty in February to manslaughter by reason of substantial impairment due to an abnormality of the mind.
Keren had become angry her parents were pandering to her brother and jealous they loved him more than her when she stabbed her 73-year-old mother, who was an advocate and volunteer for mental health services in the Hunter, at a home in The Sanctuary on Kalaroo Road, Redhead on October 10, 2015.
Public Defender Peter Krisenthal said Keren Parnell’s mental state at the time of the killing was “critically important” and “significantly reduced” her moral culpability.
Keren Parnell had a “strained and complicated” relationship with her parents, the court heard, with all of her previous brushes with the law and mental health admissions relating to assaults on either her mother or father.
"In spite of what has happened I want the court to know that I believe Keren was truly unwell and that she didn't have the ability to change because of her mental disorder,” John Parnell told the court in a victim impact statement.
"She needed help and guidance beyond what Gail and I could do for her.
"Even if Keren doesn't recover I will continue to care about her.
"She is my daughter and she will be included in my will.
"Gail was a beautiful person, she is missed terribly."
Keren Parnell will be eligible for parole in 2020.
https://www.theherald.com.au/story/4471192/guilty-plea-over-mums-death-court/
https://www.theherald.com.au/story/4734205/mothers-killing-avoidable/
https://goo.gl/BjnHAk
http://www.police.nsw.gov.au/news/latest_releases?sq_content_src=%2BdXJsPWh0dHBzJTNBJTJGJTJGZWJpenByZC5wb2xpY2UubnN3Lmdvdi5hdSUyRm1lZGlhJTJGNDkxNzQuaHRtbCZhbGw9MQ%3D%3D
Courtney Topic
Courtney Topic was a healthy, autistic 22 year old woman. She was shot by police after bystanders reported that she was sipping a Coke and holding a large knife outside Hungry Jacks in Sydney's western suburbs.
Courtney had three brothers. It was believed that she was experiencing a psychotic episode at the time. Almost half of all people shot by police in Australia have a mental health condition.
Her mother, father and three brothers say she 'wouldn't hurt a fly'.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-03-05/police-shootings-and-mental-health-a-potent-tragic-fatal-mix/9493356
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2018/04/16/australian-mother-recounts-tremendous-loss-after-mentally-ill-daughter-was-killed-by-police/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.854ad7bb3263
https://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/law-order/the-family-of-courtney-topic-shot-dead-outside-hungry-jacks-has-released-a-statement/news-story/852f9c0c23da552feffd2d213870c38e
Courtney had three brothers. It was believed that she was experiencing a psychotic episode at the time. Almost half of all people shot by police in Australia have a mental health condition.
Her mother, father and three brothers say she 'wouldn't hurt a fly'.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-03-05/police-shootings-and-mental-health-a-potent-tragic-fatal-mix/9493356
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2018/04/16/australian-mother-recounts-tremendous-loss-after-mentally-ill-daughter-was-killed-by-police/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.854ad7bb3263
https://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/law-order/the-family-of-courtney-topic-shot-dead-outside-hungry-jacks-has-released-a-statement/news-story/852f9c0c23da552feffd2d213870c38e
89 year old war veteran Kenneth Handford wasn't the random target of the burglary in which he was murdered - he was deliberately targeted before being assaulted, trussed-up, terrorised, stabbed multiple times and left to slowly die.
They discovered Ken's body on what would have been his ninetieth birthday.
www.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/cases/vic/VSC/2018/172.html?context=1;query=killed%20vulnerable;mask_path=au/cases/vic/VSC
https://www.thecourier.com.au/story/5224767/ken-handfords-murderer-gets-more-jail-after-familys-appeal/
They discovered Ken's body on what would have been his ninetieth birthday.
www.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/cases/vic/VSC/2018/172.html?context=1;query=killed%20vulnerable;mask_path=au/cases/vic/VSC
https://www.thecourier.com.au/story/5224767/ken-handfords-murderer-gets-more-jail-after-familys-appeal/
Carney Schultz
Carney was 28 years old when she died in a group home in Figtree. She had epilepsy and cerebral palsy and lived at the Figtree home with 3 other residents and the home was staffed with one team leader, 7 permanent DSWs and four casual DSWs.
Carney had a seizure at 3.20am that was observed by a support worker, who says she wiped her face, put her in the recovery position and watched her until she fell asleep. At ten to nine that morning, Carney was found dead.
Her seizure had lasted eight minutes and the emergency plan said that she was to be given midazolam and an ambulance to be called if an extended period of time had transpired. But no drugs were given and no ambulance was called.
Her documentation was inconsistent and staff failed to assist her to attend a neurological review. And the support staff in this state run home were untrained.
The Coroner said, 'Training of disability support workers at the time of Carney’s death was less than optimal in certain respects. Whilst the evidence establishes that an overall good quality of care was generally provided to Carney, deficiencies in training meant that there was the possibility of adverse outcomes.' Then went on to say that with the privatisation of group homes in NSW, new and private providers didn't have to comply with any recommendations they may set - so they'd just send a copy of the report to the NDIA and the new, private provider.
Nobody was held accountable for the preventable and avoidable death of Carney Schultz.
http://www.coroners.justice.nsw.gov.au/Documents/Findings%20Carney%20Schulz.pdf
https://www.illawarramercury.com.au/story/5233161/coroner-hands-down-findings-into-death-of-figtree-woman-carney-schultz/
Carney had a seizure at 3.20am that was observed by a support worker, who says she wiped her face, put her in the recovery position and watched her until she fell asleep. At ten to nine that morning, Carney was found dead.
Her seizure had lasted eight minutes and the emergency plan said that she was to be given midazolam and an ambulance to be called if an extended period of time had transpired. But no drugs were given and no ambulance was called.
Her documentation was inconsistent and staff failed to assist her to attend a neurological review. And the support staff in this state run home were untrained.
The Coroner said, 'Training of disability support workers at the time of Carney’s death was less than optimal in certain respects. Whilst the evidence establishes that an overall good quality of care was generally provided to Carney, deficiencies in training meant that there was the possibility of adverse outcomes.' Then went on to say that with the privatisation of group homes in NSW, new and private providers didn't have to comply with any recommendations they may set - so they'd just send a copy of the report to the NDIA and the new, private provider.
Nobody was held accountable for the preventable and avoidable death of Carney Schultz.
http://www.coroners.justice.nsw.gov.au/Documents/Findings%20Carney%20Schulz.pdf
https://www.illawarramercury.com.au/story/5233161/coroner-hands-down-findings-into-death-of-figtree-woman-carney-schultz/
Maureen Boyce
Maureen was 68 years old when she was stabbed by her former partner, Thomas Lang, at her Brisbane home. She was a socialite and former model.
Lang, a doctor, claimed it was suicide even though she was stabbed so hard that the knife pinned her body to the bed where she was found. He was convicted of murder and sentenced to twenty years to life.
Maureen was murdered on October 22, 2015.
Accused killer ‘depressed’ in weeks before Brisbane socialite’s death, court told
Tensions before socialite’s death, court hears
Son of man accused of murdering Maureen Boyce speaks out
Tensions before Qld socialite death: court
Accused killer close to tears in court
Former lover accused of jealousy killing – 9News
Sarina Russo expected to testify at trial
Socialite Maureen Boyce ‘wanted alleged killer to leave’
Strange coincidence in socialite murder trial
NZ doctor on trial for murder of Australian socialite
Businesswoman Sarina Russo tells court her friend was ‘very happy’ before her death
Socialite ‘happy’ before alleged murder – 9News
Qld jurors quiz socialite’s fatal wounds – 9News
Murder or suicide in society love triangle: Son speaks out to back murder-accused
Knife handle buried in body: murder trial
Lawyers for NZ doctor on murder charge discredit dead woman: ‘How can you rely on anything she says when she is capable of such blatant lies?’
Thomas Lang sentenced to life for murder of socialite Maureen Boyce
‘Maureen suffered all over again’
New Zealand-based doctor Thomas Lang’s chilling call to cops after murder: ‘There’s a knife in her abdomen – it looks self-inflicted’
Lang, a doctor, claimed it was suicide even though she was stabbed so hard that the knife pinned her body to the bed where she was found. He was convicted of murder and sentenced to twenty years to life.
Maureen was murdered on October 22, 2015.
Accused killer ‘depressed’ in weeks before Brisbane socialite’s death, court told
Tensions before socialite’s death, court hears
Son of man accused of murdering Maureen Boyce speaks out
Tensions before Qld socialite death: court
Accused killer close to tears in court
Former lover accused of jealousy killing – 9News
Sarina Russo expected to testify at trial
Socialite Maureen Boyce ‘wanted alleged killer to leave’
Strange coincidence in socialite murder trial
NZ doctor on trial for murder of Australian socialite
Businesswoman Sarina Russo tells court her friend was ‘very happy’ before her death
Socialite ‘happy’ before alleged murder – 9News
Qld jurors quiz socialite’s fatal wounds – 9News
Murder or suicide in society love triangle: Son speaks out to back murder-accused
Knife handle buried in body: murder trial
Lawyers for NZ doctor on murder charge discredit dead woman: ‘How can you rely on anything she says when she is capable of such blatant lies?’
Thomas Lang sentenced to life for murder of socialite Maureen Boyce
‘Maureen suffered all over again’
New Zealand-based doctor Thomas Lang’s chilling call to cops after murder: ‘There’s a knife in her abdomen – it looks self-inflicted’
Ms H
Ms H was only 23 years old when she died, in Queensland. She'd been in hospital for appendicitis and discharged herself against medical advice.
It was May. But in February, she'd been placed under a guardianship order for her medical affairs, because she had had trouble making decisions about her medical care. Ms H had a diagnosis of Aspergers.
The hospital did not enquire about her guardianship status, nor her autism spectrum disorder. Her death was entirely preventable and was as a result of system failure.
https://www.courts.qld.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0005/510845/cif-ms-h-20161114.pdf
It was May. But in February, she'd been placed under a guardianship order for her medical affairs, because she had had trouble making decisions about her medical care. Ms H had a diagnosis of Aspergers.
The hospital did not enquire about her guardianship status, nor her autism spectrum disorder. Her death was entirely preventable and was as a result of system failure.
https://www.courts.qld.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0005/510845/cif-ms-h-20161114.pdf
Aidan Fenton
Aidan Fenton died on April 27, 2015 when his parents took him to a 'slapping workshop'. The workshop included days of fasting and repeated, hard slaps meant to release toxins and cause bruising. Police allege that he was also taken off insulin at the workshop. His parents, Lily and Geoff Fenton, and self described 'healer' Hongchi Xiao, who left Australia in the days after Aidan's death, are being investigated by police.
Xiao is also linked to the death of a 71 year old disabled woman from Britain.
http://www.asiaone.com/world/controversial-slapping-therapist-arrested-london-over-australian-boys-death
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/slapping-therapy-death-case-referred-to-prosecutor-20151208-gli59j.html
Aidan Fenton, 7, was made to fast before ‘slapping therapy’, then he vomited and died
https://www.watoday.com.au/national/western-australia/dead-boy-aidan-fentons-slapping-healer-brought-treatments-to-perth-20150501-1mxptm.html
Xiao is also linked to the death of a 71 year old disabled woman from Britain.
http://www.asiaone.com/world/controversial-slapping-therapist-arrested-london-over-australian-boys-death
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/slapping-therapy-death-case-referred-to-prosecutor-20151208-gli59j.html
Aidan Fenton, 7, was made to fast before ‘slapping therapy’, then he vomited and died
https://www.watoday.com.au/national/western-australia/dead-boy-aidan-fentons-slapping-healer-brought-treatments-to-perth-20150501-1mxptm.html
Jody Meyers
|
20 year old Jody was a Deaf woman from Mannum, South Australia. She was murdered by her boyfriend, Neil Archer, who strangled her and buried her under a concrete slab in the yard. He reported her missing and pretended to search for her. Margaret Archer, 57, made an 11th hour confession that she had helped her son cover up the murder. She bought cement and a wheelbarrow which Neil Archer used as part of his crime, the court was told, along with $10 of phone credit on the victim's mobile. Members of the young mother's family received a text message which misled them into believing she had gone away after a relationship break-up. Archer was sentenced to 22 years of prison for the 2015 murder. Jody died on or around August 26-28. Vile murderer’s plea for special treatment Jody’s grieving family: throw the key away 22 years for ultimate act of betrayal |
Digby Dowdle
Digby was murdered by his mother, Susan Marie Dowdle. She suffocated him in a so called 'mercy killing' and walked free in 2018 from court with time served, despite being convicted of manslaughter.
The judge said this,
'This is an intensely sad case.
It involves the mercy killing of a son by his mother; a mother who had, for many years, cared for her son who was severely disabled as a result of a terrible car accident. He had become, partially at least as a result of that accident, an alcoholic and a drug abuser He was abusive to her and he was extremely needy. Since 28 August 2008 she tried her best to care for her son and was relentless in her pursuit of his needs and was his staunchest advocate. On 22-23 January 2016 Ms Dowdle could take it no longer. At some stage in the afternoon, possibly at around 3.40pm when she made a ‘phone call to a doctor trying to obtain some sedatives for her son who was both drunk and out of control, she set upon a course which manifested that night in her killing him.
She obtained the sedatives and, at some stage during the evening, she made searches on the Internet concerning overdose from the sedative she had obtained. She made a record of the sedatives she was administering, as she had done over many years, and then she placed a plastic bag over his face and he died of asphyxiation.'
Dowdle worked for many years at a school for children with a disability.
www.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/cases/nsw/NSWSC/2018/240.html?context=1;query=dowdle;mask_path=au/cases/nsw/NSWSC
www.nbnnews.com.au/2018/03/01/central-coast-mother-who-killed-son-released-from-prison/
crunksociety.com/post/138212485606/in-loving-memory-of-my-friend-digby-dowdle-1989
(photograph by Elvis di Fazio)
The judge said this,
'This is an intensely sad case.
It involves the mercy killing of a son by his mother; a mother who had, for many years, cared for her son who was severely disabled as a result of a terrible car accident. He had become, partially at least as a result of that accident, an alcoholic and a drug abuser He was abusive to her and he was extremely needy. Since 28 August 2008 she tried her best to care for her son and was relentless in her pursuit of his needs and was his staunchest advocate. On 22-23 January 2016 Ms Dowdle could take it no longer. At some stage in the afternoon, possibly at around 3.40pm when she made a ‘phone call to a doctor trying to obtain some sedatives for her son who was both drunk and out of control, she set upon a course which manifested that night in her killing him.
She obtained the sedatives and, at some stage during the evening, she made searches on the Internet concerning overdose from the sedative she had obtained. She made a record of the sedatives she was administering, as she had done over many years, and then she placed a plastic bag over his face and he died of asphyxiation.'
Dowdle worked for many years at a school for children with a disability.
www.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/cases/nsw/NSWSC/2018/240.html?context=1;query=dowdle;mask_path=au/cases/nsw/NSWSC
www.nbnnews.com.au/2018/03/01/central-coast-mother-who-killed-son-released-from-prison/
crunksociety.com/post/138212485606/in-loving-memory-of-my-friend-digby-dowdle-1989
(photograph by Elvis di Fazio)
Lala Mardigan
|
Lala was a woman with an intellectual disability and chronic lupus living in Wadeye, NT. She spent some time in foster care but returned to her mother at age 18 even though her mother had told the health service they could not care for her.
Nine months before she died, a psychologist warned "that if we didn't place her in a clean living environment where she was well nourished and had good access to showering and easy access to for example disabled facilities that we were going to see a severe deterioration in her health that may actually result in death". She described her bed and clothes as ‘stinking of urine’ and said that her wheelchair and room were infested with cockroaches. The showering and toileting facilities in the home were not functional. Two weeks before she died, she had both legs amputated in a bid to stem the infections. She was not assigned a guardian or any other support and died at age 20 from malnutrition and infection. Lala died in late July, 2015. http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/twenty-year-olds-death-highlights-the-people-in/6763404 http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-09-09/lala-mardigan-as-a-child/6761436 http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-09-09/lala-mardigan-nt-woman-questions-over-health-care/6761320 https://www.scoop.it/t/family-centred-care-practice/p/4051265680/2015/09/10/aboriginal-woman-lala-mardigan-died-because-people-who-had-the-power-didn-t-abc-online |
Unnamed five year old boy
|
An unnamed five year old foster child was abused by his foster family and then died of an overdose of drugs, including diazepam, morphine and other opiates. He had been removed from his birth mother because she used drugs. He died on the foster carers couch.
Days before he died, teachers at his hospital head to ring ambulance officers due to the severity of the burn on his back. The child, who had epilepsy and Hepatitis C, died March 26, 2015 in Sydney, NSW. The foster parents were being managed by Uniting Care, the same non-government organisation that operated the Gordon House foster care group home, where Girl X died. https://au.news.yahoo.com/five-year-old-foster-boy-had-toxic-drug-cocktail-in-system-at-death-reports-33256418.html http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3945964/Boy-five-died-care-foster-home-drugs-including-diazepam-heroin-system.html |
Liam Milne
|
11 year old Liam, like his twin, Ben, had Fragile X syndrome. He was also autistic. His mother, Susana, was six months pregnant with another boy. Liam’s father, Darren John Milne, meticulously planned the murder of his family, rigging up a bomb in the engine bay and doing a ‘practice run’, which he filmed to make sure the timing was right. The Ausgrid engineer had filmed practice runs on his dashcam, made a note to disable the car's air bags, found suitable roads to use as crash sites, and wired up a car bomb. Susana, Liam and the 29 week fetus were killed after Milne bundled the family into the car and crashed it into a tree at 90 miles an hour on Feb 1, 2015 in Sydney. Ben survived, with head, back and internal injuries. Darren John Milne who killed his pregnant wife and son in a car crash had set up bombs Double murder-suicide driver planted bombs in engine bay Horror crash mum Susana Milne was pregnant with third child NSW coroner criticises dead father after horror car crash |
Peta Doig
Years after the death of Amanda Gilbert, Western Australian woman Peta Doig died an excruciating death at Graylands Hospital.
There are no photos of Peta, who was institutionalised at the age of nine and was raped and physically abused thousands of times before her death.
From a story about the Senate inquiry -
'Disability activist group the Bolshy Divas told a public hearing in Perth on Friday of 40 examples where people in Australian institutions like care centres or share homes had been abused.
Among the cases was 58-year-old Peta Doig who was sexually abused by other patients at Perth’s psychiatric hospital Graylands until she could no longer be physically examined.
On Christmas Day 2012, Ms Doig started screaming.
Hospital staff treated her with sedatives and antibiotics, which were not effective.
She stopped screaming — and breathing — 10 days later and had her life support turned off with the permission of the Public Advocate.'
In the years that she had been abused in institutionalised settings, she had experienced serious long term disability - Peta's neck had been broken, which made her more susceptable to rape and abuse.
http://www.coronerscourt.wa.gov.au/_files/DOIG%20finding.pdf
https://www.perthnow.com.au/news/wa/disabled-residents-in-care-centres-abused-daily-perth-senate-inquiry-ng-de7440cc0af82b82fe509fcbf504ed81
http://www.coronerscourt.wa.gov.au/I/inquest_into_the_death_of_peta_susan_doig.aspx
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/disabled-abuse-inquiry-exposes-a-hidden-shame/news-story/a5e4fa40307e9af61e68344a8c544544
There are no photos of Peta, who was institutionalised at the age of nine and was raped and physically abused thousands of times before her death.
From a story about the Senate inquiry -
'Disability activist group the Bolshy Divas told a public hearing in Perth on Friday of 40 examples where people in Australian institutions like care centres or share homes had been abused.
Among the cases was 58-year-old Peta Doig who was sexually abused by other patients at Perth’s psychiatric hospital Graylands until she could no longer be physically examined.
On Christmas Day 2012, Ms Doig started screaming.
Hospital staff treated her with sedatives and antibiotics, which were not effective.
She stopped screaming — and breathing — 10 days later and had her life support turned off with the permission of the Public Advocate.'
In the years that she had been abused in institutionalised settings, she had experienced serious long term disability - Peta's neck had been broken, which made her more susceptable to rape and abuse.
http://www.coronerscourt.wa.gov.au/_files/DOIG%20finding.pdf
https://www.perthnow.com.au/news/wa/disabled-residents-in-care-centres-abused-daily-perth-senate-inquiry-ng-de7440cc0af82b82fe509fcbf504ed81
http://www.coronerscourt.wa.gov.au/I/inquest_into_the_death_of_peta_susan_doig.aspx
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/disabled-abuse-inquiry-exposes-a-hidden-shame/news-story/a5e4fa40307e9af61e68344a8c544544
2014
Marcia Clarke
|
83 year old Marcia died on 20 July, 2014 as a victim of elder abuse. She was neglected by her daughter and carer, Nardia.
Paramedics found her emaciated body lying on a wet bed, dirty with urine and faeces that the paramedics concluded had accumulated over some days. When she was admitted to hospital, she had muscle wastage, joint contractures, pressure sores over her thigh, hip and even ears. A large pressure sore on her lower back had infected the underlying bone. Marcia died three days after admission as a result of severe malnutrition and infection. Her fifty four year old daughter, the Coroner said, was struggling to care for herself, let alone her mother. She asked the doctor for assistance but was referred to a care service who visited the Taree house once – to clean. Two years after her mothers death, Nardia went missing. Her body was eventually discovered in bushland. http://www.coroners.justice.nsw.gov.au/Documents/Findings%20Marcia%20Clark.pdf http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-05-31/death-of-elderly-woman-highlights-need-for-better-carer-support/9817270 |
Marie Darragh and Isabella Spencer
82 year old Marie and 77 year old Isabella were murdered by Megan Haines, a nurse who injected both women with a fatal dose of insulin when she learned that they had lodged complaints about her.
Haines had boasted to a previous partner that she could use insulin to kill a person without being detected.
On the night before the victims died, Haines had been informed that she was the subject of several patient complaints.
She was questioned in detail about her movements at the nursing home on the night the women were killed, including which patients were given medication and when.
Haines said on the night of the deaths, she entered Ms Darragh's room, with another staff member after they heard noises.
The jurors took four hours to reach their verdict in the NSW Supreme Court. The Department of Health’s report in 2016 on aged care says it received 2,862 notifications of reportable assaults from approved providers of residential services in 2015-16 alone.
Nurse accused of insulin murders of two elderly women 'cannot remember' boasting
'I kissed her goodbye': Daughter tells of last visit before mother's alleged murder
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-11-03/nurse-guilty-of-murdering-two-patients-nursing-home-ballina/7987084
Haines had boasted to a previous partner that she could use insulin to kill a person without being detected.
On the night before the victims died, Haines had been informed that she was the subject of several patient complaints.
She was questioned in detail about her movements at the nursing home on the night the women were killed, including which patients were given medication and when.
Haines said on the night of the deaths, she entered Ms Darragh's room, with another staff member after they heard noises.
The jurors took four hours to reach their verdict in the NSW Supreme Court. The Department of Health’s report in 2016 on aged care says it received 2,862 notifications of reportable assaults from approved providers of residential services in 2015-16 alone.
Nurse accused of insulin murders of two elderly women 'cannot remember' boasting
'I kissed her goodbye': Daughter tells of last visit before mother's alleged murder
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-11-03/nurse-guilty-of-murdering-two-patients-nursing-home-ballina/7987084
Tyrone Honeywood
|
Tyrone Honeywood, a 25 year old paraplegic living with family in Midland, WA, was murdered (shot dead) by his father in March, 2014.
The perpetrator, Brian Robert Honeywood, died in February, 2015. He was due to face a seven day trial but changed his plea to guilty. His death is listed in prison suicide records as 'Apparent Unnatural Suicide'. www.parliament.wa.gov.au/publications/tabledpapers.nsf/displaypaper/3913842cae2f4cd407cc5e2c48257f5e000f10e1/$file/tp-3842.pdf Perth father charged with murder of paraplegic son Brian Honeywood pleads guilty to murdering paraplegic son Tyron in their Midland home Father, 60, in court on murder charge over disabled son, Tyron Paul Honeywood’s death Midland man s death a homicide: police Tyron HONEYWOOD Obituary |
Julie Jacobson
Julie Jacobson died in 2014 under the care of Lifestyle Solutions. The NSW Ombudsman said that the death was potentially preventable.
From the story - the 51-year-old woman was morbidly obese and had lost both her legs to amputation, yet Lifestyle Solutions had taken away her overnight care, meaning she had no way to visit the bathroom or seek help for other needs. She died during the night of a heart-attack.
Mr Kinmond said there had been a "range of weaknesses" in her care, which "included the failure, more generally, to recognise that this client had very significant health challenges which, if they weren't appropriately addressed … there was a risk of death."
Alarmingly, Four Corners has established that in the days after her death, amidst a flurry of internal panic about what had occurred, critical records — which documented failures in the organisation's care for Ms Jacobson — suddenly went missing.
Insiders who spoke to Four Corners on the condition of anonymity said a formal inquiry was conducted by the organisation's own investigators into what happened to the files, before finally a set of documents was handed over to the authorities.
Mr Kinmond said when the documents concerning Ms Jacobson's care finally arrived in his office there were a set of progress notes missing— Lifestyle Solutions told him it could not locate them.
He said that the documentation he was given was, in any case, evidence of "very significant shortcomings in practice".
"One of the concerns that I had in the middle of last year, which caused me to escalate this matter, was the fact that we were, on occasions, receiving a lack of information in relation to critical issues," he told Four Corners.
Lifestyle Solutions did not answer questions put to it by the program regarding the provenance of the records it produced.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-03-27/disability-service-provider-investigated-over-deaths/8388050
From the story - the 51-year-old woman was morbidly obese and had lost both her legs to amputation, yet Lifestyle Solutions had taken away her overnight care, meaning she had no way to visit the bathroom or seek help for other needs. She died during the night of a heart-attack.
Mr Kinmond said there had been a "range of weaknesses" in her care, which "included the failure, more generally, to recognise that this client had very significant health challenges which, if they weren't appropriately addressed … there was a risk of death."
Alarmingly, Four Corners has established that in the days after her death, amidst a flurry of internal panic about what had occurred, critical records — which documented failures in the organisation's care for Ms Jacobson — suddenly went missing.
Insiders who spoke to Four Corners on the condition of anonymity said a formal inquiry was conducted by the organisation's own investigators into what happened to the files, before finally a set of documents was handed over to the authorities.
Mr Kinmond said when the documents concerning Ms Jacobson's care finally arrived in his office there were a set of progress notes missing— Lifestyle Solutions told him it could not locate them.
He said that the documentation he was given was, in any case, evidence of "very significant shortcomings in practice".
"One of the concerns that I had in the middle of last year, which caused me to escalate this matter, was the fact that we were, on occasions, receiving a lack of information in relation to critical issues," he told Four Corners.
Lifestyle Solutions did not answer questions put to it by the program regarding the provenance of the records it produced.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-03-27/disability-service-provider-investigated-over-deaths/8388050
Kim Hunt
Fletcher Hunt
|
Lockhart mum Kim Fletcher (41) had an acquired brain injury and lived at home with her family, including Fletcher (10), who had ADHD; Mia, aged 8; Phoebe, aged 6 and her husband, Geoff.
Kim had been an intensive car nurse before her accident and was planning to return to work as a nursing administrator. Fletcher liked Aussie rules and riding his bike. On September 8, 2014, Hunt shot and murdered his family, shooting his daughter in the face, shooting the other children at point blank range and gunning down Kim in the driveway. A disability support worker blamed Kim’s personality changes for the murder, as did the Coroner. ‘Again and again, the inquest returned to the topic of how Mrs Hunt had changed after the accident. Her family said that focus was painful. Despite the brain and spinal injuries, Mrs Hunt had in many ways remained the same - affectionate, protective and driven.’ |
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2015/oct/09/geoff-hunt-systematically-and-cold-bloodedly-killed-his-wife-and-children-says-nsw-coroner
‘He may have simply just snapped’: Disability worker breaks down as she describes Kim Hunt’s violent rages after a car crash left her with brain injuries before her husband shot his family dead
Hunt family inquest findings
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/hunt-family-inquest-geoff-hunt-acted-on-egocentric-delusion-20151009-gk50ye.html
‘He may have simply just snapped’: Disability worker breaks down as she describes Kim Hunt’s violent rages after a car crash left her with brain injuries before her husband shot his family dead
Hunt family inquest findings
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/hunt-family-inquest-geoff-hunt-acted-on-egocentric-delusion-20151009-gk50ye.html
Radwan Kanawati
Born the youngest of nine children. IQ assessed as an adult, when already in the justice system, as 64. Deaf. Schizophrenic. 41 years old at the time of his death.
WA's mental health services were the people tasked with supporting him, especially when he started indecently dealing with children. They were also the ones who gave him a lethal dose of a toxic medication to take home and use.
'The Coroner noted that there were shortcomings in the deceased’s care which allowed for an accident to occur,' says the report, 'but ...the shortcomings were the result of an understandable assumptions rather than incompetence or lack of goodwill.'
http://www.coronerscourt.wa.gov.au/_files/Kanawati%20finding.pdf
https://au.news.yahoo.com/patients-overdose-avoidable-wa-coroner-39432484.html
WA's mental health services were the people tasked with supporting him, especially when he started indecently dealing with children. They were also the ones who gave him a lethal dose of a toxic medication to take home and use.
'The Coroner noted that there were shortcomings in the deceased’s care which allowed for an accident to occur,' says the report, 'but ...the shortcomings were the result of an understandable assumptions rather than incompetence or lack of goodwill.'
http://www.coronerscourt.wa.gov.au/_files/Kanawati%20finding.pdf
https://au.news.yahoo.com/patients-overdose-avoidable-wa-coroner-39432484.html
Miriam Merten
Miriam Merten died in 2014 from a brain injury after she fell over more than 20 times at the Mental Health Unit of Lismore Base Hospital, on the state's north coast.
A coronial inquest heard she was locked in a seclusion room for hours, and when the two nurses supervising her unlocked the door they allowed her to wander around naked, covered in faeces.
The seclusion room is approximately four by three metres in dimension. Once locked, it could not be unlocked from the inside. The room had no toilet, no running water and no furniture apart from a mattress placed on the floor.
She continued to fall over outside the seclusion room.
Coroner Jeff Linden found she died from "traumatic brain injury caused by numerous falls and the self-beating of her head on various surfaces, the latter not done with the intention of taking her life".
"The sight of the deceased wandering the corridor naked and covered in excrement while the senior nurse is seen to mop the floor, apparently oblivious to her is horrific," he said.
A senior nurse, Christine Borthistle, who was on duty had a history of abuse and was fired, then reinstated. She was deregistered along with RN Mark Burton recently. Their disciplinary actions are here and here.
A week after the decision to deregister the pair was published, a death notice was posted for Christine Borthistle. It said she died unexpectedly.
http://www.hccc.nsw.gov.au/Publications/Media-releases/2017/RNs-Christine-Borthistle-and-Mark-Burton---Unsatisfactory-professional-conduct-and-professional-misconduct
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4511654/Christine-Borthistle-abused-patients-Merten-death.html
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-05-12/lismore-hospital-death-daughter-says-nurses-lied-about-death/8520214
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AcoaLGy-gwY
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-05-12/nsw-government-inquiry-lismore-mum-miriam-merten-death/8521198
A coronial inquest heard she was locked in a seclusion room for hours, and when the two nurses supervising her unlocked the door they allowed her to wander around naked, covered in faeces.
The seclusion room is approximately four by three metres in dimension. Once locked, it could not be unlocked from the inside. The room had no toilet, no running water and no furniture apart from a mattress placed on the floor.
She continued to fall over outside the seclusion room.
Coroner Jeff Linden found she died from "traumatic brain injury caused by numerous falls and the self-beating of her head on various surfaces, the latter not done with the intention of taking her life".
"The sight of the deceased wandering the corridor naked and covered in excrement while the senior nurse is seen to mop the floor, apparently oblivious to her is horrific," he said.
A senior nurse, Christine Borthistle, who was on duty had a history of abuse and was fired, then reinstated. She was deregistered along with RN Mark Burton recently. Their disciplinary actions are here and here.
A week after the decision to deregister the pair was published, a death notice was posted for Christine Borthistle. It said she died unexpectedly.
http://www.hccc.nsw.gov.au/Publications/Media-releases/2017/RNs-Christine-Borthistle-and-Mark-Burton---Unsatisfactory-professional-conduct-and-professional-misconduct
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4511654/Christine-Borthistle-abused-patients-Merten-death.html
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-05-12/lismore-hospital-death-daughter-says-nurses-lied-about-death/8520214
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AcoaLGy-gwY
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-05-12/nsw-government-inquiry-lismore-mum-miriam-merten-death/8521198
Sandra Deacon
Sandra was a 59 year old woman living on the Central Coast (Budgewoi) when she died as a result of murder. She had an intellectual disability and had met her partner, Gary, through a not for profit organisation that arranged activities for intellectually disabled people.
Gary was controlling her and that meant controlling her access to support services. That ended when he started drinking and hit her in the head eight times with an axe.
There were warning signs, but they were ignored.
http://www.coroners.justice.nsw.gov.au/Documents/DEACON%20Sandra%20-%20Findings.pdf
https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw/woman-found-dead-in-back-yard-of-budgewoi-home-on-nsws-central-coast-was-beaten-beyond-recognition/news-story/927ffd53060b68568eae959296b5816f
https://www.theherald.com.au/story/2705109/murder-accused-dies-in-custody/
Mark Beverstock http://www.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/cases/nsw/NSWSC/2016/1466.html?context=1;query=neglect%20vulnerable%20died;mask_path=+au/cases/nsw/NSWSC
2013
Levai Bonnar
Levai was a seven year old boy with an intellectual disability who was systemically starved, beaten and humiliated by his stepfather, Christian rapper Kodi Maybir and mother, Kayla James. On May 21, 2013, his mother, Kayla James, lied to emergency services and said that he had fallen from a pogo stick.
Levai’s head had been slammed against a hard surface until he was unconscious. Neither James nor Maybir called an ambulance until he was dead – they placed a mattress against the wall, had sex a few metres away from where Levai lay dying and ordered pizza.
Hours of footage retrieved from James’ phone showed cruel, degrading and inhumane torture and treatment, including James’ battering him with a wooden plank, hitting him with a spatula, getting his siblings to hit him and trying to force him to insert his finger into his three year old brother’s anus. They also subjected him to bizarre punishments, standing for hours on a coffee tin, bracing himself against a wall and having the Bible read to him, being slapped, punched, put on a restricted diet, running for hours on a beach, being forced to wear urine soaked pants on his head and being forced to eat faeces.
FACS (NSW child welfare) had received dozens of reports that Levai was being physically and sexually assaulted and neglected and that Maybir and James were not able to look after him due to drug and alcohol misuse. No social worker visited – they lived above a bottle shop in Oakley, NSW, with no windows, bathroom or toilet.
Kayla James received a reduced ten year sentence for manslaughter after agreeing to testify against Maybir, who was jailed for 42 years for torture and murder.
https://www.sbs.com.au/news/feature/something-terrible-has-happened-levai
Boy spent last months being abused: court
Life term urged for child killer Kodi Maybir
Christian hip-hop producer Kodi Maybir jailed for killing partner’s child
Levai’s head had been slammed against a hard surface until he was unconscious. Neither James nor Maybir called an ambulance until he was dead – they placed a mattress against the wall, had sex a few metres away from where Levai lay dying and ordered pizza.
Hours of footage retrieved from James’ phone showed cruel, degrading and inhumane torture and treatment, including James’ battering him with a wooden plank, hitting him with a spatula, getting his siblings to hit him and trying to force him to insert his finger into his three year old brother’s anus. They also subjected him to bizarre punishments, standing for hours on a coffee tin, bracing himself against a wall and having the Bible read to him, being slapped, punched, put on a restricted diet, running for hours on a beach, being forced to wear urine soaked pants on his head and being forced to eat faeces.
FACS (NSW child welfare) had received dozens of reports that Levai was being physically and sexually assaulted and neglected and that Maybir and James were not able to look after him due to drug and alcohol misuse. No social worker visited – they lived above a bottle shop in Oakley, NSW, with no windows, bathroom or toilet.
Kayla James received a reduced ten year sentence for manslaughter after agreeing to testify against Maybir, who was jailed for 42 years for torture and murder.
https://www.sbs.com.au/news/feature/something-terrible-has-happened-levai
Boy spent last months being abused: court
Life term urged for child killer Kodi Maybir
Christian hip-hop producer Kodi Maybir jailed for killing partner’s child
Alexander Kormilets http://www.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/cases/nsw/NSWSC/2016/1819.html?context=1;query=neglect%20vulnerable%20died;mask_path=+au/cases/nsw/NSWSC
Unnamed Victorian Woman
|
An unnamed 83 year old Victorian woman moved out of her nursing home and in with her son and his wife – her daughter in law was going to be her carer and her grandchildren would be around to help.
She was found dead in October 2013 by a teenage grandchild and paramedics said that she was alone in a soiled continence aid on a rotten mattress, with food scraps strewn around. A medical exam said that her 34 kilo body had started to decompose, that her limbs, chest and forehead were covered in bruises and scabs and that her fingernails were filthy. The family had not sought medical advice. An autopsy said that she had died of a stroke but that she was severely neglected and she lived in the back room for the last 2 and a half years of her life, crying out in the night in pain or fear. Court documents said that he bought his family earplugs from Bunnings to drown out her cries. |
The son and daughter in law have pleaded not guilty to reckless conduct endangering life and reckless conduct endangering serious injury.
https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/dead-womans-grandchildren-to-give-evidence-in-their-parents-neglect-trial-20170714-gxbejp.html
https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/son-and-his-wife-to-stand-trial-on-neglect-charges-after-elderly-mothers-death-20170713-gxaqxh.html
Grandmother left to die in own filth
Australian man bought earplugs to drown out his elderly mother’s cries of pain
Son and his wife to stand trial on neglect charges after elderly mother’s death
Son and daughter-in-law to stand trial for mother’s horrific death
Dead woman’s grandchildren to give evidence in their parents’ neglect trial
https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/dead-womans-grandchildren-to-give-evidence-in-their-parents-neglect-trial-20170714-gxbejp.html
https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/son-and-his-wife-to-stand-trial-on-neglect-charges-after-elderly-mothers-death-20170713-gxaqxh.html
Grandmother left to die in own filth
Australian man bought earplugs to drown out his elderly mother’s cries of pain
Son and his wife to stand trial on neglect charges after elderly mother’s death
Son and daughter-in-law to stand trial for mother’s horrific death
Dead woman’s grandchildren to give evidence in their parents’ neglect trial
Helen "Margaret" Bromley
'A Mandurah man who took a public stand against street violence has been sentenced to life in prison for bludgeoning to death his elderly female neighbour with a tomahawk.
Colin Peter Casey, 52, had known Helen "Margaret" Bromley in the years before he murdered her, the Supreme Court of Western Australia heard at his sentencing on Tuesday.
Helen Margaret Bromley, 73, was found in the back yard of her Mandurah home.
He knew the beloved grandmother lived alone after losing her husband some years earlier.
Three days after the widow's 73rd birthday Casey broke into her house with the intention of finding cash to fuel his out-of-control drug habit.'
https://www.watoday.com.au/national/western-australia/murder-accused-spoke-out-about-link-with-his-victim-20110904-1js21.html
https://www.watoday.com.au/national/western-australia/dating-a-murderer-and-addicted-to-meth-how-susan-turned-her-life-around-20180724-p4zt9c.html
Colin Peter Casey, 52, had known Helen "Margaret" Bromley in the years before he murdered her, the Supreme Court of Western Australia heard at his sentencing on Tuesday.
Helen Margaret Bromley, 73, was found in the back yard of her Mandurah home.
He knew the beloved grandmother lived alone after losing her husband some years earlier.
Three days after the widow's 73rd birthday Casey broke into her house with the intention of finding cash to fuel his out-of-control drug habit.'
https://www.watoday.com.au/national/western-australia/murder-accused-spoke-out-about-link-with-his-victim-20110904-1js21.html
https://www.watoday.com.au/national/western-australia/dating-a-murderer-and-addicted-to-meth-how-susan-turned-her-life-around-20180724-p4zt9c.html
Timothy O'Brien
14 year old Timothy O'Brien, from Ballarat, was autistic. He was trying to defend his stepfather from an attack when he was repeatedly struck in the head with an axe.
The court heard that Joel Henderson, aged 42, yelled at Timothy to die during the attack and ignored his friends pleas to leave him alone.
A second man, Darren Wilson, was also sentenced to jail over the attack.
https://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/law-order/autistic-boy-14-killed-with-axe-in-ambush-court-told/news-story/2749d10bf7655ef385435580633da5fa
https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/joel-henderson-guilty-of-axe-murder-of-autistic-teenage-boy-timothy-obrien-20150807-giu6l7.html
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-04-06/axe-murder-of-timothy-obrien-near-ballarat-killers-lose-appeal/7303480
The court heard that Joel Henderson, aged 42, yelled at Timothy to die during the attack and ignored his friends pleas to leave him alone.
A second man, Darren Wilson, was also sentenced to jail over the attack.
https://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/law-order/autistic-boy-14-killed-with-axe-in-ambush-court-told/news-story/2749d10bf7655ef385435580633da5fa
https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/joel-henderson-guilty-of-axe-murder-of-autistic-teenage-boy-timothy-obrien-20150807-giu6l7.html
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-04-06/axe-murder-of-timothy-obrien-near-ballarat-killers-lose-appeal/7303480
Jason Shepstone
46 year old Jason Shepstone was described in court as 'so unwell he could have died at any time'. But he died after having hot water poured over him and after being hit by a metal pole by 60 year old Pearl Marie Wilson.
His death resulted from the combined effects of his multiple burns, blunt force injuries and the condition of his liver - Jason was an alcoholic who had advanced cirrhosis.
But the prosecution said that a lot of the injuries Jason suffered were not recent. He had 65 blunt force injuries all over his body.
His lifeless body was found naked under a blanket, covered in blisters. Burns covered 20 per cent of his body and he had 65 blunt force injuries.
The judge found his liver disease had made him vulnerable to such bruises. Just as not all of Wilson’s bruises could be attributed to him, the same was true in reverse.
The judge found pouring more near-boiling water on Mr Shepstone would ultimately have caused him to fall to the ground, unable to get to a cold shower.
Wilson, who said that she was often beaten, also had injuries - bruises, haemotomas and abrasions. She denied having struck Mr Shepstone, but said that when there was violence, “once a week, once a day, twice a day”, the majority of times she reported to police. However, she did not tell her son, but shut her mouth, because she thought it was “the right thing to do” and “like other woman that gets bashed by their man, keepin’ it to themselves”.
Wilson was found not fit to stand trial because of her intellectual disability. The judge ruled that if she was able to stand trial, she would be found not guilty of murder but of manslaughter.
www.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/cases/nsw/NSWSC/2017/1730.html?context=1;query=intellectual%20disability%20manslaughter%20%20%20;mask_path=au/cases/nsw/NSWSC
http://www.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/cases/nsw/NSWSC/2017/1680.html
https://www.illawarramercury.com.au/story/3429734/murder-accused-is-unfit-for-trial/
His death resulted from the combined effects of his multiple burns, blunt force injuries and the condition of his liver - Jason was an alcoholic who had advanced cirrhosis.
But the prosecution said that a lot of the injuries Jason suffered were not recent. He had 65 blunt force injuries all over his body.
His lifeless body was found naked under a blanket, covered in blisters. Burns covered 20 per cent of his body and he had 65 blunt force injuries.
The judge found his liver disease had made him vulnerable to such bruises. Just as not all of Wilson’s bruises could be attributed to him, the same was true in reverse.
The judge found pouring more near-boiling water on Mr Shepstone would ultimately have caused him to fall to the ground, unable to get to a cold shower.
Wilson, who said that she was often beaten, also had injuries - bruises, haemotomas and abrasions. She denied having struck Mr Shepstone, but said that when there was violence, “once a week, once a day, twice a day”, the majority of times she reported to police. However, she did not tell her son, but shut her mouth, because she thought it was “the right thing to do” and “like other woman that gets bashed by their man, keepin’ it to themselves”.
Wilson was found not fit to stand trial because of her intellectual disability. The judge ruled that if she was able to stand trial, she would be found not guilty of murder but of manslaughter.
www.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/cases/nsw/NSWSC/2017/1730.html?context=1;query=intellectual%20disability%20manslaughter%20%20%20;mask_path=au/cases/nsw/NSWSC
http://www.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/cases/nsw/NSWSC/2017/1680.html
https://www.illawarramercury.com.au/story/3429734/murder-accused-is-unfit-for-trial/
Gwen Fowler and Ryan Kelly
83 year old Gwen Fowler and 80 year old Ryan Kelly were murdered by former NSW nursing home employee Garry Steven Davis, who used large doses of insulin to kill them.
Davis has sent text messages to his Summitcare colleagues that predicted two of the nursing home's residents would die.
The case was largely circumstantial, but Davis had been terminated, forced out of or deregistered from all but one of the six facilities he worked at. He was a team leader at the home and had no motive other than craving attention.
A doctor who noted the similarities between what happened to Mrs Manuel and Mr Kelly became suspicious.
Mr Carr said test results showed "large levels of insulin in the blood that was not naturally occurring"
The court heard that from January, 2013, a new policy had come into effect preventing team leaders at SummitCare from administering drugs such as insulin.
Lawyers for the families of two of the three residents who were poisoned are preparing to lodge papers for a negligence claim against SummitCare.
https://www.theherald.com.au/nursing-home-killer/
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-09-28/nursing-home-employee-garry-davis-found-guilty-of-murder/7883704
https://www.theherald.com.au/story/4845060/aged-care-killer-to-appeal/
Davis has sent text messages to his Summitcare colleagues that predicted two of the nursing home's residents would die.
The case was largely circumstantial, but Davis had been terminated, forced out of or deregistered from all but one of the six facilities he worked at. He was a team leader at the home and had no motive other than craving attention.
A doctor who noted the similarities between what happened to Mrs Manuel and Mr Kelly became suspicious.
Mr Carr said test results showed "large levels of insulin in the blood that was not naturally occurring"
The court heard that from January, 2013, a new policy had come into effect preventing team leaders at SummitCare from administering drugs such as insulin.
Lawyers for the families of two of the three residents who were poisoned are preparing to lodge papers for a negligence claim against SummitCare.
https://www.theherald.com.au/nursing-home-killer/
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-09-28/nursing-home-employee-garry-davis-found-guilty-of-murder/7883704
https://www.theherald.com.au/story/4845060/aged-care-killer-to-appeal/
Brandon le Serve
Brandon had a troubled upbringing - he was in his first year when his father was arrested for the indecent assault of a fifteen year old girl. His parents later broke up and he stayed with Kim Earle, his mother, a nurse at the Gold Coast University Hospital.
He was told he had Aspergers' and OCD and completed year 10, but then did not want to undertake any further study. There was no formal diagnosis.
About a year before his death at age 18, he became fascinated by the Marquis de Sade. He stated that he was a paedophile. His mother was aware of his fascination with the subject and tried to dissuade him, to no avail.
His mother said that she started taking a lot of Panadeine Forte and became increasingly emotional. She said that Brandon 'talked continually of suicide' in the months before his death and said that he did no household chores.
She went to work one day and the police rang to say they 'had her son'. They had confiscated his computer and handcuffed him. Brandon was charged with 19 counts of possessing child pornography and one count of assaulting police.
His mother made conflicting statements to police, repeating that Brandon had repeatedly stated that he wanted to kill himself, but her theft of a 'euthanasia kit' from the hospital was so that she could 'euthanise her dog'. She also said she went to the hospital to get supplies to kill Brandon 'just in case'. She told her doctor that she believed he wanted this and otherwise if he did it himself it would be 'messy'.
She took him to dinner and then he wrote a suicide note, he said. She put a cannula in his arm and set up a drip, with drugs she had stolen from the hospital. She watched him die. It took an hour. She put the dog down after ringing a vet and making an appointment, took some panadol and set up a drip with Propofol. Her ex husband rang and she told him what she had done. He called an ambulance but when they called, she said it was a wrong number. She said that she went to the beach in order to drown herself.
Before she left, she covered Brandon with a blue sheet and put flowers around his face.
Police who dealt with Earle on 19 December remarked that she sounded “upbeat and happy”; that was noted as a stark change in her demeanour from the previous day. Her psychologist, Dr van de Hoef, said that the evidence, “leads me to suspect Kim (Earle) decided as soon as she knew of Brandon’s arrest to commit an ‘assisted suicide’ of her son and her own suicide”.
Brandon left a letter, which the psychologist describes as 'not a typical suicide note'. It did not mention his family and was described as “a rant by an extremely immature, autistic (or very selfcentred), uneducated and marginalised young man venting enormous frustration.” The note does not mention any intention to take active steps to kill himself and it does not mention that he agreed to Earle killing him.
Earle said that she had taken a great deal of tablets but was alert and oriented after being picked up by police from the beach.
The judge said that caring for Brandon 'almost singlehandedly' had produced a situation of chronic stress and that she was acting under that stress with diminished responsibility when she killed Brandon, but was fit to stand trial.
The 50-year-old was sentenced to three years in jail, but Judge Roslyn Atkinson is allowing Earl to be released on parole on 28 May.
“Your son’s interest in sadomasochism, [child] pornographic websites and chat rooms and art had got you to the point where you couldn’t see any way out,” Judge Atkins said. “He wanted to die … and essentially you helped him die out of your great love for him.”
“The problem is, that’s a crime,” she continued. “There are not many cases where a killing is committed out of love.”
http://www.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/cases/qld/QMHC/2016/9.html
http://www.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/cases/qld/QMHC/2016/9.html?context=1;query=earle;mask_path=
https://www.kidspot.com.au/parenting/real-life/in-the-news/essentially-you-helped-him-die-out-of-your-great-love-for-him/news-story/2e1db7f0fb783128eba7a3d47610d1ad
https://www.kidspot.com.au/parenting/real-life/in-the-news/essentially-you-helped-him-die-out-of-your-great-love-for-him/news-story/2e1db7f0fb783128eba7a3d47610d1ad
https://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/mother-helps-disabled-son-kill-himself-concern-about-his-sexual-tendencies/news-story/5adda7ff914cd67e116804709516b9a7?utm_content=SocialFlow&utm_campaign=EditorialSF&utm_source=CourierMail&utm_medium=Twitter
He was told he had Aspergers' and OCD and completed year 10, but then did not want to undertake any further study. There was no formal diagnosis.
About a year before his death at age 18, he became fascinated by the Marquis de Sade. He stated that he was a paedophile. His mother was aware of his fascination with the subject and tried to dissuade him, to no avail.
His mother said that she started taking a lot of Panadeine Forte and became increasingly emotional. She said that Brandon 'talked continually of suicide' in the months before his death and said that he did no household chores.
She went to work one day and the police rang to say they 'had her son'. They had confiscated his computer and handcuffed him. Brandon was charged with 19 counts of possessing child pornography and one count of assaulting police.
His mother made conflicting statements to police, repeating that Brandon had repeatedly stated that he wanted to kill himself, but her theft of a 'euthanasia kit' from the hospital was so that she could 'euthanise her dog'. She also said she went to the hospital to get supplies to kill Brandon 'just in case'. She told her doctor that she believed he wanted this and otherwise if he did it himself it would be 'messy'.
She took him to dinner and then he wrote a suicide note, he said. She put a cannula in his arm and set up a drip, with drugs she had stolen from the hospital. She watched him die. It took an hour. She put the dog down after ringing a vet and making an appointment, took some panadol and set up a drip with Propofol. Her ex husband rang and she told him what she had done. He called an ambulance but when they called, she said it was a wrong number. She said that she went to the beach in order to drown herself.
Before she left, she covered Brandon with a blue sheet and put flowers around his face.
Police who dealt with Earle on 19 December remarked that she sounded “upbeat and happy”; that was noted as a stark change in her demeanour from the previous day. Her psychologist, Dr van de Hoef, said that the evidence, “leads me to suspect Kim (Earle) decided as soon as she knew of Brandon’s arrest to commit an ‘assisted suicide’ of her son and her own suicide”.
Brandon left a letter, which the psychologist describes as 'not a typical suicide note'. It did not mention his family and was described as “a rant by an extremely immature, autistic (or very selfcentred), uneducated and marginalised young man venting enormous frustration.” The note does not mention any intention to take active steps to kill himself and it does not mention that he agreed to Earle killing him.
Earle said that she had taken a great deal of tablets but was alert and oriented after being picked up by police from the beach.
The judge said that caring for Brandon 'almost singlehandedly' had produced a situation of chronic stress and that she was acting under that stress with diminished responsibility when she killed Brandon, but was fit to stand trial.
The 50-year-old was sentenced to three years in jail, but Judge Roslyn Atkinson is allowing Earl to be released on parole on 28 May.
“Your son’s interest in sadomasochism, [child] pornographic websites and chat rooms and art had got you to the point where you couldn’t see any way out,” Judge Atkins said. “He wanted to die … and essentially you helped him die out of your great love for him.”
“The problem is, that’s a crime,” she continued. “There are not many cases where a killing is committed out of love.”
http://www.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/cases/qld/QMHC/2016/9.html
http://www.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/cases/qld/QMHC/2016/9.html?context=1;query=earle;mask_path=
https://www.kidspot.com.au/parenting/real-life/in-the-news/essentially-you-helped-him-die-out-of-your-great-love-for-him/news-story/2e1db7f0fb783128eba7a3d47610d1ad
https://www.kidspot.com.au/parenting/real-life/in-the-news/essentially-you-helped-him-die-out-of-your-great-love-for-him/news-story/2e1db7f0fb783128eba7a3d47610d1ad
https://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/mother-helps-disabled-son-kill-himself-concern-about-his-sexual-tendencies/news-story/5adda7ff914cd67e116804709516b9a7?utm_content=SocialFlow&utm_campaign=EditorialSF&utm_source=CourierMail&utm_medium=Twitter
Douglas Ivor Streeter
Doug Streeter was very sick. He had motor neurone disease and would die, his medical professional said, in between one and five years.
But his son, who shot Doug and his brother dead, could not wait to inherit the half a million dollars that would come with his death. He arranged an alibi and killed them both. In court, he said that he did not kill the brothers for money, nor as a 'mercy killing' - he said that he didn't know why he did it.
He was jailed for twenty years.
https://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/victoria/love-and-tears-for-lost-avoca-brothers-john-and-doug-streeter/news-story/99bdf6f83b412b7103eaab8544c1a91f
https://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/law-order/man-who-shot-dead-his-father-and-uncle-stood-to-inherit-500000/news-story/bfaeab9585e61a542558ee214d27b91a
https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/killer-ross-streeter-sick-in-the-guts-over-shooting-murder-of-father-douglas-and-uncle-john-20131202-2yl74.html
http://www.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/cases/vic/VSC/2014/100.html?context=1;query=%22mercy%20killing%22;mask_path=au/cases/vic/VSC
But his son, who shot Doug and his brother dead, could not wait to inherit the half a million dollars that would come with his death. He arranged an alibi and killed them both. In court, he said that he did not kill the brothers for money, nor as a 'mercy killing' - he said that he didn't know why he did it.
He was jailed for twenty years.
https://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/victoria/love-and-tears-for-lost-avoca-brothers-john-and-doug-streeter/news-story/99bdf6f83b412b7103eaab8544c1a91f
https://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/law-order/man-who-shot-dead-his-father-and-uncle-stood-to-inherit-500000/news-story/bfaeab9585e61a542558ee214d27b91a
https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/killer-ross-streeter-sick-in-the-guts-over-shooting-murder-of-father-douglas-and-uncle-john-20131202-2yl74.html
http://www.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/cases/vic/VSC/2014/100.html?context=1;query=%22mercy%20killing%22;mask_path=au/cases/vic/VSC
Leah Elizabeth Floyd
Leah Floyd was in a Brisbane hospital for about a year after a fall from height in 2012 left her a quadriplegic.
Her rehabilitation progressed to a stage where it was determined she could return to the community by moving in August 2013 to a specialised care home run by BE Lifestyle at Yandina Creek.
She died less than six weeks later after a pressure sore on her lower back became septic.
There were significant gaps in her care and the Coroner's report contains startling descriptions of how Leah's rights were breached, over and over, before her death.
https://www.bigrigs.com.au/search/?tag=be%20lifestyle&all-sites=on
https://www.courts.qld.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0012/494886/cif-floyd-le-20161208.pdf
Her rehabilitation progressed to a stage where it was determined she could return to the community by moving in August 2013 to a specialised care home run by BE Lifestyle at Yandina Creek.
She died less than six weeks later after a pressure sore on her lower back became septic.
There were significant gaps in her care and the Coroner's report contains startling descriptions of how Leah's rights were breached, over and over, before her death.
https://www.bigrigs.com.au/search/?tag=be%20lifestyle&all-sites=on
https://www.courts.qld.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0012/494886/cif-floyd-le-20161208.pdf
Hayley Dea Bell
|
Eight year old Hayley Dea Bell died in her mother’s home in Melbourne’s south-west. She weighed just 12 kgs.
Hayley couldn’t talk, had to be tube fed and had severe epileptic seizures. When she died in 2013, she was starved, had pneumonia, wasn’t going to school and her hair, infested with head lice and tied up in a ponytail, was dirty and matted. Hayley’s treatment had been reported to child protection five times in the two years before she died and there was an open investigation into her family. But nobody actually checked on her in the last eight months of her life. The Coroner is yet to hand down their findings. https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/starved-sick-and-unschooled-did-child-protection-fail-hayley-20180427-p4zbym.html |
2012
Erin Crabtree
Erin, aged 18, died in 2012 in Maudsland, Queensland. Erin was developmentally disabled and autistic.
Erin’s mother, Maree Crabtree, was arrested in January, 2018, for two counts of murder (Erin’s brother, Jonathan, was also allegedly murdered by their mother), grievious bodily harm, torture, fraud and armed robbery.
Erin was allegedly fatally poisoned by her mother, who staged her death as a suicide and collected life insurance.
A third sibling was rescued.
Australian mother arrested after she allegedly poisoned her disabled kids
Gold Coast mother killed two adult children for financial gain, police allege
Maree Crabtree ‘told disabled son to hold up a chemist’
Mum, 51, charged with murdering her kids told one to rob a chemist
Mother accused of poisoning her disabled adult children to death bagged $500k in insurance
‘Killer mum’ claimed $500k in insurance for disabled kids
Mum allegedly poisoned two children, prepared suicide note
Queensland mother allegedly murdered her two children with disabilities for money
Mother charged over children’s murders
QLD mother charged with murder, torture after allegedly poisoning two children to death
Friend says murdered Jonathon Crabtree was ‘full of life’
Jonathan Crabtree tried to call best mate an hour before his death
Australian mother arrested for the alleged murder of her two disabled children
Gold Coast mother killed two adult children for financial gain, police allege
Son of murder-accused had been ‘trying to pick up his life’ before he was found dead
Pictured: Disabled siblings ‘poisoned to death by rat-loving mother’
Australian mum ‘poisoned, killed disabled children for financial gain’, police claim
Murder-accused mother used prescription drugs to control children: police
Police say murder-accused mum helped son secure $200,000 disability benefits, then staged his suicide
Mum accused of disabled kids’ murder said one got Autism from a needle
Australian woman kills two ‘disabled’ adult children for financial gains
Mum partied as Erin died alone
Father of murdered siblings tried to have his son put in care
The missing Sprite cup in the police case against an accused double murderer
Erin’s mother, Maree Crabtree, was arrested in January, 2018, for two counts of murder (Erin’s brother, Jonathan, was also allegedly murdered by their mother), grievious bodily harm, torture, fraud and armed robbery.
Erin was allegedly fatally poisoned by her mother, who staged her death as a suicide and collected life insurance.
A third sibling was rescued.
Australian mother arrested after she allegedly poisoned her disabled kids
Gold Coast mother killed two adult children for financial gain, police allege
Maree Crabtree ‘told disabled son to hold up a chemist’
Mum, 51, charged with murdering her kids told one to rob a chemist
Mother accused of poisoning her disabled adult children to death bagged $500k in insurance
‘Killer mum’ claimed $500k in insurance for disabled kids
Mum allegedly poisoned two children, prepared suicide note
Queensland mother allegedly murdered her two children with disabilities for money
Mother charged over children’s murders
QLD mother charged with murder, torture after allegedly poisoning two children to death
Friend says murdered Jonathon Crabtree was ‘full of life’
Jonathan Crabtree tried to call best mate an hour before his death
Australian mother arrested for the alleged murder of her two disabled children
Gold Coast mother killed two adult children for financial gain, police allege
Son of murder-accused had been ‘trying to pick up his life’ before he was found dead
Pictured: Disabled siblings ‘poisoned to death by rat-loving mother’
Australian mum ‘poisoned, killed disabled children for financial gain’, police claim
Murder-accused mother used prescription drugs to control children: police
Police say murder-accused mum helped son secure $200,000 disability benefits, then staged his suicide
Mum accused of disabled kids’ murder said one got Autism from a needle
Australian woman kills two ‘disabled’ adult children for financial gains
Mum partied as Erin died alone
Father of murdered siblings tried to have his son put in care
The missing Sprite cup in the police case against an accused double murderer
Susan Thomas
Susan Thomas was dying of terminal cancer and had 'weeks to live'. Her adoptive son, Michael Thomas, had an intellectual disability and was not coping with the thought of losing his mother.
The 27 year old kitchen hand argued with her after he quit his job in January 2013.
New South Wales Supreme Court Justice Robert Hulme said he was satisfied Thomas had a "spontaneous outburst of anger" when he hit his adoptive mother Susan Thomas in the face in January 2013. She was rushed to hospital and had her life support turned off the same day.
At a special hearing, Thomas was acquitted of manslaughter and instead found guilty of the lesser charge - a 'limiting term' for causing grievous bodily harm.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-05-14/man-who-punched-sick-mother-not-a-threat-to-public-court-finds/6469180
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/aap/article-3081086/Sydney-man-freed-fatal-hit.html
The 27 year old kitchen hand argued with her after he quit his job in January 2013.
New South Wales Supreme Court Justice Robert Hulme said he was satisfied Thomas had a "spontaneous outburst of anger" when he hit his adoptive mother Susan Thomas in the face in January 2013. She was rushed to hospital and had her life support turned off the same day.
At a special hearing, Thomas was acquitted of manslaughter and instead found guilty of the lesser charge - a 'limiting term' for causing grievous bodily harm.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-05-14/man-who-punched-sick-mother-not-a-threat-to-public-court-finds/6469180
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/aap/article-3081086/Sydney-man-freed-fatal-hit.html
Julie Betty Kuhn
|
Julie was a wheelchair user and had chronic arthritis. She was 75 when her eighty one year old defacto husband and carer, Herbert Bernard Erickson, murdered her by suffocation on January 16, 2012.
After murdering Julie, Erickson killed his two dogs. He told police it was a suicide pact and he had tried to electrocute himself, but just burned his hands and lost two fingers. Erickson was charged with murder and his lawyer described it as an 'act of love'. Three weeks later, he reported to police, returned his library books and went to the beach. His body was found and death determined as suicide by drowning. The media described him as a 'beautiful carer'. thewest.com.au/news/wa/beautiful-carer-charged-over-his-partners-death-ng-ya-335385 |
Charles Dalziel
Charles was a wheelchair user who lived in Adelaide. His wife, Beverly Dalziel, 45, was charged with his murder on August 31, 2012, at Barmera. Charles' body was found in a burnt out house.
The court was told that she calmly set fire to 67 year old Charles' bed and then rang firefighters.
The prosecutor alleged that an accelerant, such as petrol, was used to start the fire and neighbours had heard Mrs Dalziel threaten to kill her wheelchair bound husband in the past.The jury also heard that in the weeks prior to his death, Mr Dalziel had called for an ambulance four times and was once found bruised on the floor of his bedroom wearing only a nappy.
The prosecution case centred on her denials of knowledge of a five-litre petrol tin and cigarette lighter found in the kitchen of the Dalziel’s home which several witnesses testified having seen in her possession at various times in the months before the fire.
Beverley Dalziel's lawyers argued that Mr Dalziel drank heavily, was on medication and often smoked in bed — which was the likely cause of the fire. Mrs Dalziel said that she thought that the fire was caused by an electrical fault, smoking in bed or that he had set his own bed on fire.
Charles had kept a knife concealed in his bed in the weeks before his death for protection.
A Supreme Court jury of three men and nine women took 12 hours to find her not guilty.
www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/south-australia/beverly-dalziel-pleads-not-guilty-to-murdering-husband-charles-dalziel-in-house-fire-at-barmera/news-story/bef4e0abe6af35501a4df449a5058211
www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/south-australia/beverly-dalziel-pleads-not-guilty-to-murdering-husband-charles-dalziel-in-house-fire-at-barmera/news-story/bef4e0abe6af35501a4df449a5058211
The court was told that she calmly set fire to 67 year old Charles' bed and then rang firefighters.
The prosecutor alleged that an accelerant, such as petrol, was used to start the fire and neighbours had heard Mrs Dalziel threaten to kill her wheelchair bound husband in the past.The jury also heard that in the weeks prior to his death, Mr Dalziel had called for an ambulance four times and was once found bruised on the floor of his bedroom wearing only a nappy.
The prosecution case centred on her denials of knowledge of a five-litre petrol tin and cigarette lighter found in the kitchen of the Dalziel’s home which several witnesses testified having seen in her possession at various times in the months before the fire.
Beverley Dalziel's lawyers argued that Mr Dalziel drank heavily, was on medication and often smoked in bed — which was the likely cause of the fire. Mrs Dalziel said that she thought that the fire was caused by an electrical fault, smoking in bed or that he had set his own bed on fire.
Charles had kept a knife concealed in his bed in the weeks before his death for protection.
A Supreme Court jury of three men and nine women took 12 hours to find her not guilty.
www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/south-australia/beverly-dalziel-pleads-not-guilty-to-murdering-husband-charles-dalziel-in-house-fire-at-barmera/news-story/bef4e0abe6af35501a4df449a5058211
www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/south-australia/beverly-dalziel-pleads-not-guilty-to-murdering-husband-charles-dalziel-in-house-fire-at-barmera/news-story/bef4e0abe6af35501a4df449a5058211
Dorothy Mavis Baum
Dorothy was beaten to death by a woman in her South Australian nursing home against a background of domestic violence.
But the responsibility lay with St Basil's and the shocking care she received there.
From the Coroner's inquest -
'I find that RN Latz, Mr Kamal and Ms Irvine deliberately represented that Mrs Baum’s injuries were self-inflicted in order to avoid the consequences of the failure to conduct a bed check much earlier with the possibility that Mrs
Baum’s dreadful injuries might have been discovered soon after they were inflicted by Ms Setalo sometime prior to shortly
after 3am when Ms Setalo was removed from the nursing home and taken to hospital by the ambulance service. I find that Mrs Baum’s injuries were inflicted at some time well before 3 o’clock in the morning of 30 May 2012. She was left untreated and undiscovered for a minimum of 2¼ hours before the alert was raised at around 5:15am. Needless to say that is a deplorable state of affairs.'
'There had been a gross dereliction of proper management on the night in question. Ms Setalo should have been isolated immediately. It was unacceptable for RN Latz, an able bodied woman, and Mr Kamal, a young and able bodied man, to barricade themselves in the nurses' station and not immediately deal with Ms Setalo, even if that meant some risk to themselves.
They were duty bound to expose themselves to that risk because failure to do so might expose far more vulnerable people to the risk of injury from Ms Setalo. That risk was not merely theoretical because Ms Setalo clearly attacked and grievously injured Mrs Baum while the latter was helpless in her bed and unable to escape.
She was able to put up her left arm principally as the defensive wounds identified by Dr Langlois demonstrate, but she was utterly helpless while being lashed by the plastic chain with the metal magnets attached to its ends.
It would have been those metallic and weighted ends that caused the most of the damage to Mrs Baum. Mrs Baum no doubt would have been terrified during this attack. The situation is made even worse by the fact that for at least two hours and probably longer, Mrs Baum was left bleeding.
She was lying in her bed in her own blood.
When she was finally discovered, she was not despatched to hospital as urgently as the situation required. Her right to a proper investigation of the circumstances of her death was then compromised by the failure of RNLatz, Ms Irvine and Mr Kamal to step up and frankly acknowledge the likely cause of her death.
Instead they made things much worse by suggesting that Mrs Baum had inflicted the injuries upon herself. Mrs Baum was in no position to deny that suggestion because of her dementia and furthermore because of the sequelae of the injuries she had sustained in the attack.
It was safe for RN Latz.'
'When I look at the matter in the way I have set out above, it seems to me to be an entirely inadequate response that those managing the nursing home at the highest level should escape any sanction, particularly when RN Latz remained employed at the nursing home for years after the events of 2012.'
http://www.courts.sa.gov.au/CoronersFindings/Lists/Coroners%20Findings/Attachments/763/BAUM%20Dorothy%20Mavis.pdf
But the responsibility lay with St Basil's and the shocking care she received there.
From the Coroner's inquest -
'I find that RN Latz, Mr Kamal and Ms Irvine deliberately represented that Mrs Baum’s injuries were self-inflicted in order to avoid the consequences of the failure to conduct a bed check much earlier with the possibility that Mrs
Baum’s dreadful injuries might have been discovered soon after they were inflicted by Ms Setalo sometime prior to shortly
after 3am when Ms Setalo was removed from the nursing home and taken to hospital by the ambulance service. I find that Mrs Baum’s injuries were inflicted at some time well before 3 o’clock in the morning of 30 May 2012. She was left untreated and undiscovered for a minimum of 2¼ hours before the alert was raised at around 5:15am. Needless to say that is a deplorable state of affairs.'
'There had been a gross dereliction of proper management on the night in question. Ms Setalo should have been isolated immediately. It was unacceptable for RN Latz, an able bodied woman, and Mr Kamal, a young and able bodied man, to barricade themselves in the nurses' station and not immediately deal with Ms Setalo, even if that meant some risk to themselves.
They were duty bound to expose themselves to that risk because failure to do so might expose far more vulnerable people to the risk of injury from Ms Setalo. That risk was not merely theoretical because Ms Setalo clearly attacked and grievously injured Mrs Baum while the latter was helpless in her bed and unable to escape.
She was able to put up her left arm principally as the defensive wounds identified by Dr Langlois demonstrate, but she was utterly helpless while being lashed by the plastic chain with the metal magnets attached to its ends.
It would have been those metallic and weighted ends that caused the most of the damage to Mrs Baum. Mrs Baum no doubt would have been terrified during this attack. The situation is made even worse by the fact that for at least two hours and probably longer, Mrs Baum was left bleeding.
She was lying in her bed in her own blood.
When she was finally discovered, she was not despatched to hospital as urgently as the situation required. Her right to a proper investigation of the circumstances of her death was then compromised by the failure of RNLatz, Ms Irvine and Mr Kamal to step up and frankly acknowledge the likely cause of her death.
Instead they made things much worse by suggesting that Mrs Baum had inflicted the injuries upon herself. Mrs Baum was in no position to deny that suggestion because of her dementia and furthermore because of the sequelae of the injuries she had sustained in the attack.
It was safe for RN Latz.'
'When I look at the matter in the way I have set out above, it seems to me to be an entirely inadequate response that those managing the nursing home at the highest level should escape any sanction, particularly when RN Latz remained employed at the nursing home for years after the events of 2012.'
http://www.courts.sa.gov.au/CoronersFindings/Lists/Coroners%20Findings/Attachments/763/BAUM%20Dorothy%20Mavis.pdf
Helen Curtis
From the pages of the Disability Clothesline - ''Here's Phillip. He's not a dead disabled man, but he's a disabled victim of domestic and family violence. He shot his disabled partner, Helen Curtis, at close range, killing her.
Helen was a perpetrator of domestic and family violence against Phillip. It's outlined here - but you can hear the note of concern in the Coroner's voice, can't you? fwww.coronerscourt.vic.gov.au/resources/d3fa50cd-91a7-4425-920c-cfef8bef84f3/helencurtis_491912.pdf
He says that yes, Phillip was a victim, yes, Helen was a perpetrator, there's not enough focus on male victims nor on violent behaviour by women - but he's still a perpetrator. He shot and killed his partner.
Helen was shot way back in 2012 - the Coroner's inquest has just been completed, six years later, long after Phillip was acquitted of her murder.
And there are long and impassioned paragraphs in the court transcripts about Phillip and his character. Whether he was a victim and whether he should be acquitted. Whether the footage of him shooting Helen point blank in the head and torso should be shown in court and released to the public.
Eventually he was acquitted. Many people testified about his gentle nature and unwillingness to be angered and this played a large part in the decision to acquit him of this crime.
But then that same gentle man was last year sentenced and convicted of a crime against a woman - a crime way back in 1986, where this gentle teenager followed a nurse, waved a knife at her, said 'give me your money or I will cut your throat'. Grabbed her jumper, robbed her of her $47, forced her to masturbate her, tried to make her perform other sex acts, ejaculated on her, ran off.
And that was probably his mistake. They used that DNA after the 2014 murder of Helen Curtis...the victim got a call to say that they had a DNA match for an offender and was told that he was in custody, waiting for a murder trial. She didn't want to push the charges because she thought he was out of harms way, but then he was released.
The judge praised her for her tenacity when she testified. 'Well, she has not been broken by this. She has been damaged but she has not been broken,' he said. He read Bracken's criminal record, armed robbery, owning a cut down .22 rifle, attempted armed robbery, theft of a motor vehicle, drug charges.
He pleaded guilty and the judge said that the offences happened a long time ago and that he should do three years on a community corrections order, with 300 hours unpaid community work.
Violence is never uncomplicated, but I wonder why this story has not been more widely reported. And whether the murder trial of Helen Curtis would have had a different outcome if it had been understood that he wasn't actually a 'good bloke'.'
https://www.smh.com.au/national/vic-man-acquitted-of-shooting-partner-20140228-33qau.html
Helen was a perpetrator of domestic and family violence against Phillip. It's outlined here - but you can hear the note of concern in the Coroner's voice, can't you? fwww.coronerscourt.vic.gov.au/resources/d3fa50cd-91a7-4425-920c-cfef8bef84f3/helencurtis_491912.pdf
He says that yes, Phillip was a victim, yes, Helen was a perpetrator, there's not enough focus on male victims nor on violent behaviour by women - but he's still a perpetrator. He shot and killed his partner.
Helen was shot way back in 2012 - the Coroner's inquest has just been completed, six years later, long after Phillip was acquitted of her murder.
And there are long and impassioned paragraphs in the court transcripts about Phillip and his character. Whether he was a victim and whether he should be acquitted. Whether the footage of him shooting Helen point blank in the head and torso should be shown in court and released to the public.
Eventually he was acquitted. Many people testified about his gentle nature and unwillingness to be angered and this played a large part in the decision to acquit him of this crime.
But then that same gentle man was last year sentenced and convicted of a crime against a woman - a crime way back in 1986, where this gentle teenager followed a nurse, waved a knife at her, said 'give me your money or I will cut your throat'. Grabbed her jumper, robbed her of her $47, forced her to masturbate her, tried to make her perform other sex acts, ejaculated on her, ran off.
And that was probably his mistake. They used that DNA after the 2014 murder of Helen Curtis...the victim got a call to say that they had a DNA match for an offender and was told that he was in custody, waiting for a murder trial. She didn't want to push the charges because she thought he was out of harms way, but then he was released.
The judge praised her for her tenacity when she testified. 'Well, she has not been broken by this. She has been damaged but she has not been broken,' he said. He read Bracken's criminal record, armed robbery, owning a cut down .22 rifle, attempted armed robbery, theft of a motor vehicle, drug charges.
He pleaded guilty and the judge said that the offences happened a long time ago and that he should do three years on a community corrections order, with 300 hours unpaid community work.
Violence is never uncomplicated, but I wonder why this story has not been more widely reported. And whether the murder trial of Helen Curtis would have had a different outcome if it had been understood that he wasn't actually a 'good bloke'.'
https://www.smh.com.au/national/vic-man-acquitted-of-shooting-partner-20140228-33qau.html
Jake Lasker
Jake liked playing games on his Xbox. He was 19 years old and had just been declared officially free from the eye cancer for which he had been getting treatment.
Jake's family described him as unfailingly polite, a "best friend" to his mother and sister. He liked music; he was a kindhearted soul who "never gave up" and "would do anything for anyone". Despite his Asperger's, he made friends online, especially with other Xbox gamers.Jake's younger brother Adam is also autistic, and Jake often served as an interpreter for Adam.
His mother says, "They had a special bond – if Adam was upset Jake would know to say what's wrong and then Jake would tell us what's wrong because we just couldn't get it out of Adam."
Fatefully, Jake met a man he thought was a friend on Facebook. They played Xbox games together. But one day, when his mother left Jake and two other teens together, Jake's so-called "friend" took a knife from the kitchen and stabbed Jake to death. The third teen had left the room, either unaware of the danger or too afraid to try to help Jake. The coroner determined that Jake had died of blood loss and had suffered wounds to his hands as he fought to survive.
After Jake was dead, the two other teens left the house and told police that Jake had been killed by an intruder, but the third teen went to police later on and explained what had really happened. Jake's killer got a life sentence.
Jake's parents are still grieving for their son. Jake's father has a tattoo of his son. Adam, Jake’s autistic younger brother, died five years after Jake’s murder of natural causes.
From the Autism Memorial -
References:
Jake Lasker (19) was stabbed to death just months after being given the all-clear from cancer
Facebook Community: R.I.P JAKE Lasker
Remorseless killer stabbed 'best friend' 102 times
Tributes flow for slain cancer survivor
Murderer Max Peter Smith to be sentenced to life in prison
Father has memory of lost son etched into skin
Mother of Toowoomba murder victim Jake Lasker mourns her 'best friend'
Family rocked by second tragedy
Jake's family described him as unfailingly polite, a "best friend" to his mother and sister. He liked music; he was a kindhearted soul who "never gave up" and "would do anything for anyone". Despite his Asperger's, he made friends online, especially with other Xbox gamers.Jake's younger brother Adam is also autistic, and Jake often served as an interpreter for Adam.
His mother says, "They had a special bond – if Adam was upset Jake would know to say what's wrong and then Jake would tell us what's wrong because we just couldn't get it out of Adam."
Fatefully, Jake met a man he thought was a friend on Facebook. They played Xbox games together. But one day, when his mother left Jake and two other teens together, Jake's so-called "friend" took a knife from the kitchen and stabbed Jake to death. The third teen had left the room, either unaware of the danger or too afraid to try to help Jake. The coroner determined that Jake had died of blood loss and had suffered wounds to his hands as he fought to survive.
After Jake was dead, the two other teens left the house and told police that Jake had been killed by an intruder, but the third teen went to police later on and explained what had really happened. Jake's killer got a life sentence.
Jake's parents are still grieving for their son. Jake's father has a tattoo of his son. Adam, Jake’s autistic younger brother, died five years after Jake’s murder of natural causes.
From the Autism Memorial -
References:
Jake Lasker (19) was stabbed to death just months after being given the all-clear from cancer
Facebook Community: R.I.P JAKE Lasker
Remorseless killer stabbed 'best friend' 102 times
Tributes flow for slain cancer survivor
Murderer Max Peter Smith to be sentenced to life in prison
Father has memory of lost son etched into skin
Mother of Toowoomba murder victim Jake Lasker mourns her 'best friend'
Family rocked by second tragedy
Roger Davies
Nobody knows how Roger died, or if he was murdered. But that is what was claimed by a man who knew way too much about him.
The only way Roger Josef Davies could be formally identified was by his prosthetic leg.
The man who told the story of his murder, by an unknown person with an iron bar, was long gone. He uploaded to Facebook a series of captioned photographs of Roger's body, which was in a skeletal state in Granville, NSW. The man, who called himself 'Jeffrey Fisher' sid that Roger was a 'real forgotten Australian' and that he had been abused as a child. The police don't really know when Roger died - they just know that he did. And it was probably as a result of violence, as he had multiple fractures to his ribs and jaw.
He was often homeless and wasn't the type of guy that people kept track of. The police found his siblings in South Australia, but they didn't want to attend the inquest. They said that they lost contact with him a few years before his death.
So the inquest was closed, with no further information.
http://www.coroners.justice.nsw.gov.au/Documents/Finding%20Roger%20Davies.pdf
The only way Roger Josef Davies could be formally identified was by his prosthetic leg.
The man who told the story of his murder, by an unknown person with an iron bar, was long gone. He uploaded to Facebook a series of captioned photographs of Roger's body, which was in a skeletal state in Granville, NSW. The man, who called himself 'Jeffrey Fisher' sid that Roger was a 'real forgotten Australian' and that he had been abused as a child. The police don't really know when Roger died - they just know that he did. And it was probably as a result of violence, as he had multiple fractures to his ribs and jaw.
He was often homeless and wasn't the type of guy that people kept track of. The police found his siblings in South Australia, but they didn't want to attend the inquest. They said that they lost contact with him a few years before his death.
So the inquest was closed, with no further information.
http://www.coroners.justice.nsw.gov.au/Documents/Finding%20Roger%20Davies.pdf
2011
Tanilla Warrick-Deaves
|
Two year old Tanilla had a physical disability and was beaten to death on August 27, 2011, by her stepfather. She had lived on the Central Coast of NSW.
Her stepfather made her stand unsupported for hours on end as punishment for soiling herself, made her run laps, despite her disability – she was whipped with items including his belt, an extension cord, thongs, a broom and a hairbrush. Three days before she died he bashed her head against a shower screen until her face was bloody, then kicked her across the hall. After she was beaten for the last time, it was obvious that she had a head injury. Her mother, seeing how badly Tanilla was hurt, did not call the ambulance because she thought it would be better if she died than be a ‘vegetable’. Tanilla put into a pram where she took three days to die. Her mother, Donna Deaves (29) was jailed for 12 years for manslaughter and stepfather Warren Ross was jailed for 40 years for murder. |
https://www.dailymercury.com.au/news/how-monster-was-able-kill-little-tanilla-warrick-d/2275877/
Mum felt it ‘a bit late’ to save beaten Tanilla
Agonising abuse of tiny Tanilla: NSW court
http://www.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/cases/nsw/NSWSC/2014/707.html?context=1;query=Tanilla%20Warrick-Deaves;mask_path=
http://www.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/cases/nsw/NSWSC/2013/1359.html?context=1;query=Tanilla%20Warrick-Deaves;mask_path=
Mum felt it ‘a bit late’ to save beaten Tanilla
Agonising abuse of tiny Tanilla: NSW court
http://www.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/cases/nsw/NSWSC/2014/707.html?context=1;query=Tanilla%20Warrick-Deaves;mask_path=
http://www.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/cases/nsw/NSWSC/2013/1359.html?context=1;query=Tanilla%20Warrick-Deaves;mask_path=
Julian
11 year old Julian was murdered on October 1, 2011.
Julian was autistic and lived in Kandos, NSW. He was regularly confined to a small garden shed, tied down with ratchet straps and packing tape and bound to a chair, which he was expected to sleep in. Occasionally, he was strapped into a sleeping bag with his arms taped inside PVC pipes.
On the night of his murder, he had soiled himself. His stepfather rubbed his face in his faeces, strapped him into a chair, put him under a cold shower and then put him in the shed. His mother listened to his cries from the baby monitor by his bedside and then came to assist when Julian fell unconscious – it was only about five degrees and Julian, who was only 24kgs, was unable to move to warm himself.
An autopsy found that he had died of hypothermia. It also found blood poisoning and internal injuries.
Although Julian died in 2011 and his mother was tried in court a few years later, there was no reported media until his stepfather, Rudolph Pintar, pleaded guilty in 2016. There is no record of the outcome.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/mother-knew-of-husbands-punishment-before-autistic-sons-death-court-20151117-gl0u90.html
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/magician-pleads-guilty-to-unlawful-death-of-autistic-boy-left-to-freeze-in-shed-20160205-gmmckn.html
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/mother-of-autistic-boy-who-died-strapped-to-chair-in-cold-shed-was-trying-to-help-court-20151112-gkx1j8.html
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/autistic-boy-died-are-being-bound-to-chair-and-showered-in-cold-water-court-20151111-gkwc17.html
Julian was autistic and lived in Kandos, NSW. He was regularly confined to a small garden shed, tied down with ratchet straps and packing tape and bound to a chair, which he was expected to sleep in. Occasionally, he was strapped into a sleeping bag with his arms taped inside PVC pipes.
On the night of his murder, he had soiled himself. His stepfather rubbed his face in his faeces, strapped him into a chair, put him under a cold shower and then put him in the shed. His mother listened to his cries from the baby monitor by his bedside and then came to assist when Julian fell unconscious – it was only about five degrees and Julian, who was only 24kgs, was unable to move to warm himself.
An autopsy found that he had died of hypothermia. It also found blood poisoning and internal injuries.
Although Julian died in 2011 and his mother was tried in court a few years later, there was no reported media until his stepfather, Rudolph Pintar, pleaded guilty in 2016. There is no record of the outcome.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/mother-knew-of-husbands-punishment-before-autistic-sons-death-court-20151117-gl0u90.html
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/magician-pleads-guilty-to-unlawful-death-of-autistic-boy-left-to-freeze-in-shed-20160205-gmmckn.html
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/mother-of-autistic-boy-who-died-strapped-to-chair-in-cold-shed-was-trying-to-help-court-20151112-gkx1j8.html
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/autistic-boy-died-are-being-bound-to-chair-and-showered-in-cold-water-court-20151111-gkwc17.html
Isabella Leiper
|
Isabella Leiper died July 7, 2011. Her case is still before the courts. She lived in Clarence Town, NSW, and had cerebral palsy.
Isabella was found dead in her bed in 2011. An inquest into her death in 2013 heard that she died from a combination of blunt force injuries, resulting in tears to her liver, diaphragm, oesophagus and small bowel, with internal bleeding. Her father, David Leiper, was charged with manslaughter in February, 2014 – but for four years, the defence has claimed that they don’t have the resources to listen to and transcribe 74 discs of electronic evidence. Trial dates in 2014, 2016 and 2017 have all been vacated because they are arguing about who should pay for the transcripts. Nearly seven years after her murder, little Isabella’s killer is still not brought to justice. Isabella was nine years old. |
https://www.theherald.com.au/story/1416272/inquest-into-clarence-town-death-hears-triple-o-call/
https://www.theherald.com.au/story/5351433/dispute-over-74-discs-at-heart-of-case-delays-in-disabled-girls-death/
https://www.9news.com.au/national/2014/02/19/05/24/nsw-dad-charged-over-disabled-girls-death
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-04-08/9yo-disabled-girl-27a-delight273a-coronial-inquest/4616616
https://www.theherald.com.au/story/5351433/dispute-over-74-discs-at-heart-of-case-delays-in-disabled-girls-death/
https://www.9news.com.au/national/2014/02/19/05/24/nsw-dad-charged-over-disabled-girls-death
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-04-08/9yo-disabled-girl-27a-delight273a-coronial-inquest/4616616
Brett Williams
Stuart Barry Russell, 44, is serving 22 years in jail for murdering a Brett Williams, a blind pensioner, and attempting to burn his body on December 16, 2011. Brett had a brain injury and a built up shoe for a shortened leg.
Brett Williams, 46, had offered Russell, his teenage girlfriend Bronte Dallas-Clark and another man a place to stay on his Eggs and Bacon Bay property after they were evicted from their nearby home.
On the night of the move a drunk Russell burst into Mr Williams’ home and after a brief fight stabbed him four times, puncturing his heart.
Later that night Russell and his offsiders discussed torching Mr Williams’ home to destroy evidence.
Mr Williams’ body was burnt but the fire did not take hold. Mr Williams' son Danny Fazackerley told an inquest in Hobart on Wednesday morning that people had set fire to his father's body and sat around it singing and burning incense.
Russell is serving a 22-year jail term for the murder of Mr Williams who was a tenant in his house.
In 2012 Justice Peter Evans told the Supreme Court that neither the murderer Stuart Barry Russell, nor his companions, did anything to obtain medical assistance for the dying victim.
But Mr Williams' son Danny Fazackerley said it was disgusting that others had not been charged over the murder.
Mr Fazackerley told the court the investigation and court case had confirmed two other people helped dispose of the body and cover up the murder.
During the trial the court heard Russell and his girlfriend later held a memorial service for Mr Williams. Brett's inquest was only held in 2018 - the link is below.
http://www.magistratescourt.tas.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0019/412480/Williams,-Brett-Edward.pdf
'
https://www.news.com.au/breaking-news/man-charged-with-murder-burning-friend/news-story/0375190d61c96cd53f9dd30fe093c300
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-03-14/family-question-lack-of-charges-in-murder-of-stuart-russell/9546652
https://www.examiner.com.au/story/159187/murder-accused-argued-with-victim/
Brett Williams, 46, had offered Russell, his teenage girlfriend Bronte Dallas-Clark and another man a place to stay on his Eggs and Bacon Bay property after they were evicted from their nearby home.
On the night of the move a drunk Russell burst into Mr Williams’ home and after a brief fight stabbed him four times, puncturing his heart.
Later that night Russell and his offsiders discussed torching Mr Williams’ home to destroy evidence.
Mr Williams’ body was burnt but the fire did not take hold. Mr Williams' son Danny Fazackerley told an inquest in Hobart on Wednesday morning that people had set fire to his father's body and sat around it singing and burning incense.
Russell is serving a 22-year jail term for the murder of Mr Williams who was a tenant in his house.
In 2012 Justice Peter Evans told the Supreme Court that neither the murderer Stuart Barry Russell, nor his companions, did anything to obtain medical assistance for the dying victim.
But Mr Williams' son Danny Fazackerley said it was disgusting that others had not been charged over the murder.
Mr Fazackerley told the court the investigation and court case had confirmed two other people helped dispose of the body and cover up the murder.
During the trial the court heard Russell and his girlfriend later held a memorial service for Mr Williams. Brett's inquest was only held in 2018 - the link is below.
http://www.magistratescourt.tas.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0019/412480/Williams,-Brett-Edward.pdf
'
https://www.news.com.au/breaking-news/man-charged-with-murder-burning-friend/news-story/0375190d61c96cd53f9dd30fe093c300
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-03-14/family-question-lack-of-charges-in-murder-of-stuart-russell/9546652
https://www.examiner.com.au/story/159187/murder-accused-argued-with-victim/
Faye Lorraine and Robert George Silich
Christine Anthony
|
50 year old Christine Anthony (Christine Darcy) was a wheelchair user. She was set alight with methylated spirits by her boyfriend, David Allen Harding, on Valentine's Day.
He left her to die, walking out of the house and not returning. Christine was able to tell the ambulance officers who had burned her before she suffered a cardiac arrest en route to the burns unit. Harding was sentenced to twenty years in prison. https://countingthewomen.wordpress.com/2015/03/10/christine-anthony-2-2011/ www.narrominenewsonline.com.au/story/1521531/defenceless-woman-murdered/ http://www8.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/cases/nsw/NSWSC/2013/513.html |
Anne Redman
|
Two teenage would-be burglars, called J and B at trial, cut the power to Anne Redman's home on January 25, 2011, thinking it was empty. J broke in through the bathroom window - when the 87-year-old went to investigate the sound of glass smashing, she saw B crouching behind a bin.
He punched her in the face, breaking her neck. J then went to their car, retrieving a blunt hunting knife. Ms Redman was alive as they used the knife. At trial the boys blamed each other as the instigator of the horrific murder. The court heard J returned from the car and asked why B hadn't knocked her out. B replied, "I'm not going to knock her out, I'm going to kill her." Before any arrests were made, police said the killers tracked blood traces through the house as they left via the front door. The boys - the 17-year-old son of a policeman and his friend, 16, were arrested months later. They eventually pleaded guilty, and in November last year were given 20-year non-parole periods - the equal record minimum sentence imposed upon youths in SA's legal history. An appeal against the severity of the sentence was rejected in May. Gallery: The Anne Redman murder investigation Verdict: Teen killers J and B, jailed for life with 20-year non-parole periods. |
Urbana Alipio
Doris Mercy Becke
Lola Joyce Bennett
Emmanuela Cachia
Caesar Galea
Reginald Joseph Green
Joan Joy
Esther Newham
Alma Smith
Dorothy Sterling
Neeltje Valkay
Verna Noeleen Webeck
Ella Wood
Dorothy Wu
- Victims of the Quaker Hill nursing home fire
In November 2011, fourteen people died when Roger Dean, a nurse who was drug dependent and trying to cover up his theft of prescription drugs, set alight their nursing home.
Dean pleaded guilty to 11 counts of murder and was sentenced to life imprisonment.
Dean had been moved sideways from his previous job after an incident that spurred concerns about patient safety.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-03-09/quakers-hill-nursing-home-fire-inquest-findings-released/6290248
http://www.coroners.justice.nsw.gov.au/Documents/finding,%20recommendation%20and%20reasons%20-%20quakers%20hill%20fire.pdf
Some of the victims' images are below. (from the ABC coverage)
Dean pleaded guilty to 11 counts of murder and was sentenced to life imprisonment.
Dean had been moved sideways from his previous job after an incident that spurred concerns about patient safety.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-03-09/quakers-hill-nursing-home-fire-inquest-findings-released/6290248
http://www.coroners.justice.nsw.gov.au/Documents/finding,%20recommendation%20and%20reasons%20-%20quakers%20hill%20fire.pdf
- Roger Dean case: From fatal fire to sentencing
- Police release interview with Roger Dean
- Nurse admits murder of 11 nursing home residents
- Victims' families tell of guilt after nursing home fire
- Fire survivor says Dean told her help was on its way
Some of the victims' images are below. (from the ABC coverage)
|
Alma Smith (73)
Alma was one of three people who died at the scene of the November 18 fire.
Her daughter Donna Austin said her mother loved nothing more than spending time with her family. She said the pain and sadness of the murder cannot be overstated. Alma's son Ian said he could never forgive Dean for his mother's death. |
Caesar Galea (82)
|
Verna Webeck (83)
Verna Webeck was one of 11 children. She was said to have lived a tough life, but never complained.
Eleven days after the fire, Verna died in a Sydney hospital while undergoing treatment for severe injuries, including burns and smoke inhalation. During Dean's sentencing hearing, Verna's daughter described the pain of losing her mother. "That terrible day, mum was unable to help herself as she was a vulnerable person unable to move, left to perish in her bed," she said. |
|
Caesar died in the days after the fire after from the damage caused to his body by smoke inhalation. During Dean's sentencing hearing, Caesar's daughter Rosanna Shepherd detailed her father's suffering.
"He was barely recognisable and struggled for every breath, coughing up thick, black tar from his lungs," a statement read to the court by her husband Russell said. "He would be screaming 'please help me' as he relived the nightmare of being stuck in his room while the fire engulfed him." Another daughter, Patricia Rynne, said they were proud people and it was devastating for them to be separated by going into care. Caesar's wife died just a few months after losing her husband to the fire. "My mother cried for days. I believed she died of a broken heart," Ms Rynne said. |
|
Lola Bennett (86)
Reginald Green (87)
Kyla Puhle
|
Kyla died of starvation and neglect at the hands of her parents, Harry and Angela Puhle, on March 19, 2011. She was 27 years old.
Kyla lived in North Brighton, Adelaide, South Australia. Six months before she died, her parents stopped taking her to her day program and stopped accessing other disability supports. They left her in a beanbag and went to work – Angela in her job as a school principal, Harry as a teacher. Kyla died of malnutrition and pneumonia. When they found her body, it weighed only 15 kilos. Harry shot himself before he could be tried. Angela pleaded guilty to manslaughter and walked free from court. In an expose by Background Briefing in 2018, the sentencing judge, John Sulan, said that he didn't believe Kyla could provide as much 'joy' for her parents as an abled person. Listen to the podcast here. |
Court documents from the Puhle case
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-06-23/when-carers-kill/9894514
Mercy urged for mum who starved daughter
Angela Puhle, Former Principal, Admits To Starving Disabled Daughter To Death: A Burden Too Great?
Adelaide mother spared jail over malnutrition manslaughter of disabled daughter
Former school principal Angela Puhle receives suspended sentence for manslaughter of disabled daughter
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-06-23/when-carers-kill/9894514
Mercy urged for mum who starved daughter
Angela Puhle, Former Principal, Admits To Starving Disabled Daughter To Death: A Burden Too Great?
Adelaide mother spared jail over malnutrition manslaughter of disabled daughter
Former school principal Angela Puhle receives suspended sentence for manslaughter of disabled daughter
2010
TJ
From the Guardian Deaths Inside database -
TJ was found dead in his cell at Albany regional prison on 19 January 2010, a month before he was due to be released. His death was consistent with epileptic seizures, which he had suffered since he was 11.
He was receiving medication to manage his epilepsy in prison but the results of some recent tests that showed lower levels of those drugs in his system were not picked up by his treating doctor.
The coroner recommended funding for an electronic medical records system, which has since been put in place at prisons in Western Australia.
https://interactive.guim.co.uk/2018/08/deaths-in-custody-pdfs/TJ-findings.pdf
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2010-01-20/man-dies-at-albany-regional-prison/1215788
TJ was found dead in his cell at Albany regional prison on 19 January 2010, a month before he was due to be released. His death was consistent with epileptic seizures, which he had suffered since he was 11.
He was receiving medication to manage his epilepsy in prison but the results of some recent tests that showed lower levels of those drugs in his system were not picked up by his treating doctor.
The coroner recommended funding for an electronic medical records system, which has since been put in place at prisons in Western Australia.
https://interactive.guim.co.uk/2018/08/deaths-in-custody-pdfs/TJ-findings.pdf
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2010-01-20/man-dies-at-albany-regional-prison/1215788
Allan Heath
47 year old Allan Heath, from Langford, WA, was friends with Christopher John Elliott. Elliott had a 'fondness for knives' and used drugs. The pair had been friends for some years and Elliott lived in a shed on his property until about three days before the murder.
Elliott was schizophrenic and Allan Heath is described as 'an invalid, with limited mobility' - Elliot had cared for him, the judge said, and protected him during drug deals at the house.
Allan kicked Christopher Elliot out, calling him a drug dealer, and a few days later Elliott turned up with a knife. He doused Allan in petrol and stabbed him in the abdomen, perforating his liver and slicing his portal vein. He was found in a pool of blood with a 15cm stab wound, and died in hospital a few hours later.
Elliott was schizophrenic and Allan Heath is described as 'an invalid, with limited mobility' - Elliot had cared for him, the judge said, and protected him during drug deals at the house.
Allan kicked Christopher Elliot out, calling him a drug dealer, and a few days later Elliott turned up with a knife. He doused Allan in petrol and stabbed him in the abdomen, perforating his liver and slicing his portal vein. He was found in a pool of blood with a 15cm stab wound, and died in hospital a few hours later.
LV
From the Guardian Deaths Inside database -
LV went into respiratory failure while he was being held down, handcuffed and injected with a sedative, midazolam.
LV had gone to hospital seeking help on 13 April 2010 because he was hearing voices telling him to kill someone.
It is alleged when he arrived at the mental health unit he struck a medical student. LV was then restrained face down by up to eight hospital staff and four police.
His death rasied questions around the use of sedatives like midazolam, as well as the use of prone restraint and the availability of Indigenous mental health practioners.
LV's grieving family asked why he was not admitted to hospital when he tried to give himself in to health authorities.
https://www.courts.qld.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0003/136605/cif-vaggs-l-20120221.pdf
https://amp.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/vaggs-family-awarded-100k/news-story/abba121003b01e0dedd810f2e94ad506
https://www.abc.net.au/worldtoday/content/2010/s2974372.htm
LV went into respiratory failure while he was being held down, handcuffed and injected with a sedative, midazolam.
LV had gone to hospital seeking help on 13 April 2010 because he was hearing voices telling him to kill someone.
It is alleged when he arrived at the mental health unit he struck a medical student. LV was then restrained face down by up to eight hospital staff and four police.
His death rasied questions around the use of sedatives like midazolam, as well as the use of prone restraint and the availability of Indigenous mental health practioners.
LV's grieving family asked why he was not admitted to hospital when he tried to give himself in to health authorities.
https://www.courts.qld.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0003/136605/cif-vaggs-l-20120221.pdf
https://amp.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/vaggs-family-awarded-100k/news-story/abba121003b01e0dedd810f2e94ad506
https://www.abc.net.au/worldtoday/content/2010/s2974372.htm
Penny Pratt
27 year old Penny Pratt had admitted herself into a psychiatric unit on the day she died. She was depressed and grief stricken - her fiance, Alan, had died exactly six months earlier.
But two men, James John Potter and Aaron Gibson, persuaded her to leave.
Potter was jailed for 24 years and Gibson was jailed for 20 years after murdering Penny in her Boronia apartment. She was shot three times in the head and stabbed in the heart, before her throat was cut.
Moments before her death, she pleaded with Gibson not to kill her after he produced a sawn off shotgun, begging, 'Don't, don't. You don't have to do this.'
Ignoring her, he shot her in the jaw, then shot her twice more in the head. Gibson told Potter to make sure she was dead and Potter stabbed and slashed Penny's throat.
http://www9.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/cases/vic/VSC/2012/363.html
http://www8.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/cases/vic/VSC/2012/511.html
But two men, James John Potter and Aaron Gibson, persuaded her to leave.
Potter was jailed for 24 years and Gibson was jailed for 20 years after murdering Penny in her Boronia apartment. She was shot three times in the head and stabbed in the heart, before her throat was cut.
Moments before her death, she pleaded with Gibson not to kill her after he produced a sawn off shotgun, begging, 'Don't, don't. You don't have to do this.'
Ignoring her, he shot her in the jaw, then shot her twice more in the head. Gibson told Potter to make sure she was dead and Potter stabbed and slashed Penny's throat.
http://www9.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/cases/vic/VSC/2012/363.html
http://www8.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/cases/vic/VSC/2012/511.html
MMT
From the Guardian's Deaths Inside database -
MMT died of organ failure caused by sepsis at Rockhampton hospital on 14 May 2010, eight days after being arrested by police for breaching his parole conditions. He spent one night in Rockhampton watch house before being taken to Capricornia correctional centre, where his condition deteriorated over three days until he was transferred to hospital.
He was a Birrigubba man and respected tribal elder and his loss was deeply felt by his community. At the inquest the coroner recommended Offender Health Services review and update their alcohol withdrawal protocols, which it says it has now done.
Issues raised included medical care required but not all given, procedures not all followed.
https://www.courts.qld.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0020/106355/cif-tiers-mm-20110929.pdf
MMT died of organ failure caused by sepsis at Rockhampton hospital on 14 May 2010, eight days after being arrested by police for breaching his parole conditions. He spent one night in Rockhampton watch house before being taken to Capricornia correctional centre, where his condition deteriorated over three days until he was transferred to hospital.
He was a Birrigubba man and respected tribal elder and his loss was deeply felt by his community. At the inquest the coroner recommended Offender Health Services review and update their alcohol withdrawal protocols, which it says it has now done.
Issues raised included medical care required but not all given, procedures not all followed.
https://www.courts.qld.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0020/106355/cif-tiers-mm-20110929.pdf
Alan Truran http://www.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/cases/nsw/NSWSC/2013/218.html?context=1;query=neglect%20vulnerable%20died;mask_path=+au/cases/nsw/NSWSC
Amanda Quirk
|
32 year old Amanda Quirk was murdered in her home by her flatmates, Christopher James Swan, Rachel Narelle Smith and Michelle Anna Mondientz, on the 31st March, 2010.
Her decomposing body was found in April - the pathologist was unable to ascertain the cause of death. The perpetrators assaulted her, put a rope around her neck and dragged her. She was tortured for many hours including having a cigarette lighter held to her fingers, being choked and having her head jumped on. www.northernstar.com.au/news/murder-accused-granted-re-trial-separate-co-accuse/1978449/ www.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/sinodisp/au/cases/qld/QCA/2013/217.html?stem=0&synonyms=0&query=Amanda%20Quirk |
Janet Mackozdi
|
Janet was a 77 year old woman who died in Mt Lloyd, Tasmania, on July 23, 2010.
Her daughter and son in law forced her to live in an uninsulated sea container on their property in midwinter so they could make room in their home for boxes of their belongings. The temperature dropped below freezing and she died of hyperthermia. The perpetrators, Jassy Anglin and Michael Anglin, pleaded guilty to death by culpable negligence and received a two year suspended sentence. Dead elderly woman had lost 15kg in her final year, inquest told Inquest examines care of 77yo who died of hypothermia in shipping container Couple pleads guilty to death of elderly relative housed in shipping container Woman dies after being ‘forced to live in a shipping container’ Couple charged after mother freezes to death sleeping in shipping container Couple avoids jail over mother’s death Tragic mum couple walks |
DJ
DJ died from an extremely rare colloid cyst in the brain, which obstructed the flow of his cerebrospinal fluid resulting in his seizure and sudden death in August 2010.
He had presented to the prison hospital six times in five months complaining of increasingly severe headaches accompanied by blurred vision. He was occasionally given Panadol but no further tests or treatment.
He collapsed at Darwin correctional centre on 10 August and was transported to hospital but died the next day.
The coroner found that DJ may have had a greater chance of survival if the cyst in his brain been detected and properly treated.
https://justice.nt.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0006/208851/d01272010-robert-johnson.pdf
He had presented to the prison hospital six times in five months complaining of increasingly severe headaches accompanied by blurred vision. He was occasionally given Panadol but no further tests or treatment.
He collapsed at Darwin correctional centre on 10 August and was transported to hospital but died the next day.
The coroner found that DJ may have had a greater chance of survival if the cyst in his brain been detected and properly treated.
https://justice.nt.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0006/208851/d01272010-robert-johnson.pdf
Elizabeth Knowles
|
Elizabeth’s husband set their Kallungur house on fire and left her inside, the prosecution alleged. She was found a few metres away from her wheelchair and they said she died of smoke inhalation. Less than a day later, her husband put in an insurance claim on the house.
Eight years after her death (on April 22, 2010), he was supposed to appear in court, on trial for her murder. This week, he was supposed to go to court. But on the day of the court hearing, he killed himself. Elizabeth was 48. Man charged with murdering disabled wife in fire to claim insurance ELIZABETH JOY KNOWLES (#54-2010) Motive sought for ‘suspicious’ fatal house fire Husband charged six years later |
Tomislav Svetina
Zlatko "Boris" Svetina, who was jailed for 11 years for defensive homicide, turned the power off before entering his father Tomislav Svetina's home late at night.
Boris had worked in community care and nursing and spent many years working with people with disabilities and in crisis accommodation units.
Svetina easily prised the hatchet from his frail 74-year-old father's grip and used it against him in a brutal fashion.
He struck his father about 10 times to the head and face, including at least three times while he lay or crouched on the floor, then left him to die.
Mr Svetina had told a family friend he feared his son and kept the hatchet beside his bed for protection, the Victorian Supreme Court heard.
He blamed his son for his marriage breaking up and for him being jailed for assaulting his wife, Zlatko's mother.
He was found to have killed his father four months after the older man was freed from jail for assaulting his wife over suspicions she was chatting to other men on the internet.
Justice Nettle said it was easy to see the pain that Mr Svetina's behaviour towards his mother would have caused Zlatko Svetina.
"However, this does not mean that the way in which your father behaved excuses you," he said.
"For no matter how much he provoked you, you have committed an awful crime of killing him — a 74-year-old man of significant physical infirmity — by striking him dead many times with an axe at night in his own home."
Justice Nettle said Svetina's reaction was "grossly disproportionate" to the threat he faced.
www8.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/cases/vic/VSC/2011/392.html
www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/son-jailed-for-killing-dad-with-axe-20110822-1j6c6.html
Boris had worked in community care and nursing and spent many years working with people with disabilities and in crisis accommodation units.
Svetina easily prised the hatchet from his frail 74-year-old father's grip and used it against him in a brutal fashion.
He struck his father about 10 times to the head and face, including at least three times while he lay or crouched on the floor, then left him to die.
Mr Svetina had told a family friend he feared his son and kept the hatchet beside his bed for protection, the Victorian Supreme Court heard.
He blamed his son for his marriage breaking up and for him being jailed for assaulting his wife, Zlatko's mother.
He was found to have killed his father four months after the older man was freed from jail for assaulting his wife over suspicions she was chatting to other men on the internet.
Justice Nettle said it was easy to see the pain that Mr Svetina's behaviour towards his mother would have caused Zlatko Svetina.
"However, this does not mean that the way in which your father behaved excuses you," he said.
"For no matter how much he provoked you, you have committed an awful crime of killing him — a 74-year-old man of significant physical infirmity — by striking him dead many times with an axe at night in his own home."
Justice Nettle said Svetina's reaction was "grossly disproportionate" to the threat he faced.
www8.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/cases/vic/VSC/2011/392.html
www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/son-jailed-for-killing-dad-with-axe-20110822-1j6c6.html
Suellen Pike
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Suellen was a disability pensioner and loved her son Stephen so much she changed her will to leave him all her worldly possessions. Weeks later, he murdered her. Her body was never found. 34 year old Pike bought a new shovel and plastic dropsheets, searched bushland on Google maps, lied to others and failed to show up for work - because he was killing his mother at her Burleigh Waters home on the Gold Coast. www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/stephen-pike-jailed-for-10andahalf-years-for-killing-mother-whose-body-has-never-been-found-after-she-changed-her-will/news-story/45e625e7890868d3aedde562aa3be89d www.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/cases/qld/QCA/2014/352.html www.australianmissingpersonsregister.com/SuellenPike.htm |
Zahra Clare Baker
Wagga Wagga amputee Zahra Clare Baker was only ten years old when she was murdered by her stepmother, Elisa Baker, in September 2010 in North Carolina USA.
Zahra had her leg amputated as a result of cancer five years prior and had moved to the US with her father.
A complicated series of lies were told by her father to cover up her disappearance - he was never charged. But her stepmother, who confessed to desecrating and hiding her stepdaughter's body, was jailed for eighteen years.
Zahra's body was identified by her prosthetic leg.
www.stayathomemum.com.au/true-crime-series/the-most-evil-stepmother-and-the-death-of-zahra-baker/
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Zahra_Baker
Zahra had her leg amputated as a result of cancer five years prior and had moved to the US with her father.
A complicated series of lies were told by her father to cover up her disappearance - he was never charged. But her stepmother, who confessed to desecrating and hiding her stepdaughter's body, was jailed for eighteen years.
Zahra's body was identified by her prosthetic leg.
www.stayathomemum.com.au/true-crime-series/the-most-evil-stepmother-and-the-death-of-zahra-baker/
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Zahra_Baker
Amanda Gilbert
Amanda Allison Gilbert was only 47 years old when she died as a result of bronchopneumonia and chronic renal failure. The young mother had a mental illness and acquired her brain injury during a psychotic episode when she was 23. She had jumped from an upstairs window with a mattress thinking that she was on a surfboard a few months before, was unhurt and then tried to hang herself.
She had acquired a brain injury and therefore there was nowhere for Amanda to be placed in WA, the Coroner said. No other facility - other than Graylands, the State's oldest and most run down psychiatric hospital - was willing to take her.
They sent Amanda to a lot of places, although they said 'attempts were made to locate an alternative'. One of those 'alternatives' was an aged care facility. Eventually, there was no other option than Graylands, the mixed gender long stay unit.
Amanda did not die as a result of violence at the hands of one single offender. She died from systemic ableism and institutionalised violence. The inquest says that before she died, she was assaulted at least 111 times from March 1988 to July 1997. Amanda 'provoked' the attacks, the Coroner said, because she had 'intruded' or 'interfered' with the property of other patients. And as time went on, Amanda became more unmanageable and was placed in seclusion regularly, further escalating her behaviour.
They were worried about it, they said. A letter written by a psychiatrist in 1997 said that there were 26 reported incidents where she was the victim of attempted sexual assaults by male patients over a six month period.
Over time, she started to fall. Over and over. 'Worse injuries occured later', said the Coroner, without saying what they were. Many required hospital treatment and it was years later that they thought to monitor her because of her frequent falls.
They gave her more and more lithium to control her. And it was this that probably killed her. As her renal function decreased, they managed her 'palliatively'. They decided to 'manage the condition without dialysis' because of her 'inability to cooperate with the procedure'.
And then, over the next two years, she became thinner and frailer, vomited, had anorexia. Became more irritated and anxious and eventually she collapsed and died in her room.
They said that she died 'as a result of natural causes', but noted that her care was fiercely lacking. When they said she was assaulted frequently, physically and sexually, they noted that it was likely that she 'provoked or instigated' the attacks. These attacks are rarely classified as domestic violence.
It's all good now, they said, because now they do not have mixed gender wards. Amanda is forgotten now except by her family and her people, who continue to watch the same kind of violence against disabled women in institutional settings.
https://thewest.com.au/news/australia/graylands-hospital-outdated-coroner-ng-ya-369887
http://www.coronerscourt.wa.gov.au/_files/Gilbert_Amanda_finding_2014.pdf
She had acquired a brain injury and therefore there was nowhere for Amanda to be placed in WA, the Coroner said. No other facility - other than Graylands, the State's oldest and most run down psychiatric hospital - was willing to take her.
They sent Amanda to a lot of places, although they said 'attempts were made to locate an alternative'. One of those 'alternatives' was an aged care facility. Eventually, there was no other option than Graylands, the mixed gender long stay unit.
Amanda did not die as a result of violence at the hands of one single offender. She died from systemic ableism and institutionalised violence. The inquest says that before she died, she was assaulted at least 111 times from March 1988 to July 1997. Amanda 'provoked' the attacks, the Coroner said, because she had 'intruded' or 'interfered' with the property of other patients. And as time went on, Amanda became more unmanageable and was placed in seclusion regularly, further escalating her behaviour.
They were worried about it, they said. A letter written by a psychiatrist in 1997 said that there were 26 reported incidents where she was the victim of attempted sexual assaults by male patients over a six month period.
Over time, she started to fall. Over and over. 'Worse injuries occured later', said the Coroner, without saying what they were. Many required hospital treatment and it was years later that they thought to monitor her because of her frequent falls.
They gave her more and more lithium to control her. And it was this that probably killed her. As her renal function decreased, they managed her 'palliatively'. They decided to 'manage the condition without dialysis' because of her 'inability to cooperate with the procedure'.
And then, over the next two years, she became thinner and frailer, vomited, had anorexia. Became more irritated and anxious and eventually she collapsed and died in her room.
They said that she died 'as a result of natural causes', but noted that her care was fiercely lacking. When they said she was assaulted frequently, physically and sexually, they noted that it was likely that she 'provoked or instigated' the attacks. These attacks are rarely classified as domestic violence.
It's all good now, they said, because now they do not have mixed gender wards. Amanda is forgotten now except by her family and her people, who continue to watch the same kind of violence against disabled women in institutional settings.
https://thewest.com.au/news/australia/graylands-hospital-outdated-coroner-ng-ya-369887
http://www.coronerscourt.wa.gov.au/_files/Gilbert_Amanda_finding_2014.pdf
Iris Temperley
Iris Temperley was an 82-year-old woman who lived alone.
On 26 January 2010, she was tending her garden when she was attacked by David Samuel Aubrey Ray.
Iris lived alone and independently in her home in George Street, Rockhampton. She was aged 82 and had lived there for 52 years. She required a walker to get around and had had installed an electric chair lift to take her up to the first floor of her house. She suffered from some ailments and took blood thinning and other medication. As a consequence of her medication her eyesight was very poor but her hearing good. She was very security conscious around her home. The deceased had five children and many grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
He bashed her around the head and the face and repeatedly raped her. Ms Temperley was found unconscious and was rushed to the Royal Brisbane and Women’s hospital. She died sometime later due to a loss of blood from the head and anal–genital injuries.
At the time of the offence the offender was 18 years of age. He claimed that he could not remember sexually assaulting the deceased as he was extremely intoxicated. During the course of the trial it was revealed that he had previous criminal convictions, largely for stealing and for break and enter.
The primary judge, in commenting on the “appalling” nature of the crime, sentenced Ray to life imprisonment for murder and for two counts of rape. Ray then appealed the sentences. Justices McMurdo, White and Mullins, in considering similar cases involving violent rapes, allowed the appeal on the grounds that the sentences for rape were manifestly excessive. However, the sentence of life imprisonment for murder was upheld.
Case 3: R v. Ray [2011] QCA 365
http://www.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/sinodisp/au/cases/qld/QCA/2011/365.html
https://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/teen-to-stand-trial-over-death-of-rockhampton-grandmother-iris-temperley-82/news-story/95654a4f1941b918ce0ff9122acd6c07?sv=3c5d15521ad06129d228d221b9458385
https://www.themorningbulletin.com.au/news/granny-rapist-sentences-reduced/1207522/
https://www.themorningbulletin.com.au/news/emotional-farewell-for-victim/466065/
On 26 January 2010, she was tending her garden when she was attacked by David Samuel Aubrey Ray.
Iris lived alone and independently in her home in George Street, Rockhampton. She was aged 82 and had lived there for 52 years. She required a walker to get around and had had installed an electric chair lift to take her up to the first floor of her house. She suffered from some ailments and took blood thinning and other medication. As a consequence of her medication her eyesight was very poor but her hearing good. She was very security conscious around her home. The deceased had five children and many grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
He bashed her around the head and the face and repeatedly raped her. Ms Temperley was found unconscious and was rushed to the Royal Brisbane and Women’s hospital. She died sometime later due to a loss of blood from the head and anal–genital injuries.
At the time of the offence the offender was 18 years of age. He claimed that he could not remember sexually assaulting the deceased as he was extremely intoxicated. During the course of the trial it was revealed that he had previous criminal convictions, largely for stealing and for break and enter.
The primary judge, in commenting on the “appalling” nature of the crime, sentenced Ray to life imprisonment for murder and for two counts of rape. Ray then appealed the sentences. Justices McMurdo, White and Mullins, in considering similar cases involving violent rapes, allowed the appeal on the grounds that the sentences for rape were manifestly excessive. However, the sentence of life imprisonment for murder was upheld.
Case 3: R v. Ray [2011] QCA 365
http://www.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/sinodisp/au/cases/qld/QCA/2011/365.html
https://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/teen-to-stand-trial-over-death-of-rockhampton-grandmother-iris-temperley-82/news-story/95654a4f1941b918ce0ff9122acd6c07?sv=3c5d15521ad06129d228d221b9458385
https://www.themorningbulletin.com.au/news/granny-rapist-sentences-reduced/1207522/
https://www.themorningbulletin.com.au/news/emotional-farewell-for-victim/466065/
Edwin Singer
Edwin was a 55 year old man who had emphysema. He was a former social worker and a dad.
The year before, he was interviewed by the Geelong Independent about his struggle with unemployment and living below the poverty line. He said he had abandoned meat in his diet to make ends meet and visited the Salvation Army for food vouchers so that he could pay for his 12 year old daughter's education.
Edwin was an alcoholic, like his murderers, and lived in the Sir Charles Hotham Hotel in Geelong. One of his murderers, Bradley Walters, said that he had become incensed by Edwin's lack of hygiene - he had experienced episodes of fecal incontinence in shared areas of the hotel.
Walters drank five to six litres of cask wine and spent most of the day banging on his door and calling out to Edwin to 'come and clean up his mess'. Eventually Edwin emerged to use the bathroom and Walters punched him in the head and chest, finally delivering a kick into the chest with steel capped boots.
Walters left him in the hallway and Edwin finally managed to get back to his room. Walters returned with two other residents of the hotel, Paul Russell and Brett Drummond. He kept assaulting Edwin, calling him an ’animal‘, ’dirty piece of shit‘, ’maggot‘ and ’cunt‘. In the room, he continued to punch Mr Singer about the head and body. He was pleading for him to leave him alone, and was heard to be moaning ’ow, ow‘ as he was beaten.
Eventually Edwin stopped responding and the trio carried him out a door to an exterior fire escape. He was either already dead, or died out on the fire escape. Later, the group moved the body.
Edwin's health was already compromised by emphysema and long standing alcohol abuse due to multiple injuries, including 27 rib fractures, a fractured sternum and a broken nose. He is survived by his daughter, Rebecca, a sister, Terri and a stepdaughter, Jasmine.
The judge said,
'At the date of his death Edwin Singer was 55. The Court has received victim impact statements from his sister and his step-daughter. They express in plain language something of the suffering you have caused. Mr Singer’s sister writes of her brother:
He would have felt so alone and terrified and I wasn’t there for him.
And:
Eddy was my only sibling and now all my family are gone. It is so utterly final and I miss him so much.
Mr Singer’s step-daughter describes how she is now confronted with the overwhelming need to care for his teenage daughter and the serious daily difficulties she faces in meeting this challenge. That daughter is the girl about whom you and Walters mocked Mr Singer as you bashed him. Not surprisingly, the loss of her father has had serious emotional and psychological consequences for her.'
http://www8.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/cases/vic/VSC/2012/608.html
http://www6.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/cases/vic/VSC/2013/104.html
https://geelongindy.com.au/indy/06-10-2011/murdered-single-dad-struggled-with-poverty/
https://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/law-order/jail-for-man-who-pleaded-guilty-to-manslaughter-over-death-of-messy-flatmate-in-geelong/news-story/73244b6d605019cebca817723c211802?sv=92758da94e095f79cebfed3329349b32
The year before, he was interviewed by the Geelong Independent about his struggle with unemployment and living below the poverty line. He said he had abandoned meat in his diet to make ends meet and visited the Salvation Army for food vouchers so that he could pay for his 12 year old daughter's education.
Edwin was an alcoholic, like his murderers, and lived in the Sir Charles Hotham Hotel in Geelong. One of his murderers, Bradley Walters, said that he had become incensed by Edwin's lack of hygiene - he had experienced episodes of fecal incontinence in shared areas of the hotel.
Walters drank five to six litres of cask wine and spent most of the day banging on his door and calling out to Edwin to 'come and clean up his mess'. Eventually Edwin emerged to use the bathroom and Walters punched him in the head and chest, finally delivering a kick into the chest with steel capped boots.
Walters left him in the hallway and Edwin finally managed to get back to his room. Walters returned with two other residents of the hotel, Paul Russell and Brett Drummond. He kept assaulting Edwin, calling him an ’animal‘, ’dirty piece of shit‘, ’maggot‘ and ’cunt‘. In the room, he continued to punch Mr Singer about the head and body. He was pleading for him to leave him alone, and was heard to be moaning ’ow, ow‘ as he was beaten.
Eventually Edwin stopped responding and the trio carried him out a door to an exterior fire escape. He was either already dead, or died out on the fire escape. Later, the group moved the body.
Edwin's health was already compromised by emphysema and long standing alcohol abuse due to multiple injuries, including 27 rib fractures, a fractured sternum and a broken nose. He is survived by his daughter, Rebecca, a sister, Terri and a stepdaughter, Jasmine.
The judge said,
'At the date of his death Edwin Singer was 55. The Court has received victim impact statements from his sister and his step-daughter. They express in plain language something of the suffering you have caused. Mr Singer’s sister writes of her brother:
He would have felt so alone and terrified and I wasn’t there for him.
And:
Eddy was my only sibling and now all my family are gone. It is so utterly final and I miss him so much.
Mr Singer’s step-daughter describes how she is now confronted with the overwhelming need to care for his teenage daughter and the serious daily difficulties she faces in meeting this challenge. That daughter is the girl about whom you and Walters mocked Mr Singer as you bashed him. Not surprisingly, the loss of her father has had serious emotional and psychological consequences for her.'
http://www8.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/cases/vic/VSC/2012/608.html
http://www6.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/cases/vic/VSC/2013/104.html
https://geelongindy.com.au/indy/06-10-2011/murdered-single-dad-struggled-with-poverty/
https://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/law-order/jail-for-man-who-pleaded-guilty-to-manslaughter-over-death-of-messy-flatmate-in-geelong/news-story/73244b6d605019cebca817723c211802?sv=92758da94e095f79cebfed3329349b32
Barry Harrison
|
Paid carer Stephen James McLaren attempted to murder 61 year old Barry Harrison, who had motor neurone disease, and who then died a few months later. He said he 'felt trapped' and was 'at the end of his tether'.
McLaren admitted trying to drown his victim in his own bodily fluids by placing him in a horizontal position on the bed. When Barry cried out desperately for help, he turned up the television, got in his car and drove away. Barry was found a few hours later by a nurse and was later too distressed to return to his own home. McLaren was sentenced to eight years jail, which was overturned on appeal. www.abc.net.au/news/2011-06-15/carer-jailed-for-attempted-murder/2759320 www.portnews.com.au/story/1204830/carers-mental-state-cuts-jail-time/ |
Krystyna Sadlowski
|
84 year old Krystyna was alone at home in May, 2010, when Stefan Dicky Westberg broke into her Redcliffe home to steal a purse with $65 cash, alcohol and keys.
Krystyna confronted him after he pulled all the fuses from the house, cut off the power and kicked in the front door. It was dark, with only some moonlight, and Westberg used a roll of newspaper still in its plastic wrapping to bludgeon her to death, hitting her around the head. She eventually choked on her own blood. Westberg, a father to six young children, was jailed for life. His sister in law testified that he had told his partner that he had killed an old lady for her. Krystyna was a survivor of the Nazi camps. https://thewest.com.au/news/australia/life-sentence-for-murdering-pensioner-ng-ya-338150 www.watoday.com.au/national/western-australia/father-of-six-guilty-of-bludgeoning-elderly-woman-20111107-1n44r.html |
Doreen McClelland
80 year old Doreen McClelland was murdered by her adopted grandson, Tilak Neil Huon on the 24 June 2010 in her home, in Peakhurst New South Wales.
At about 7:30PM on Thursday 24 June 2010, he drove his vehicle to Ms McClelland’s home at Peakhurst. He knocked on the sliding glass door and Ms McClelland opened it for him.
At some point between 7:30PM and 10:45PM he assaulted Ms McClelland causing her death. This occurred where Mrs McClelland was sitting in a single armchair in the lounge room. He had obtained a knife from the kitchen and he stabbed Ms McClelland with it in the left cheek with the blade becoming embedded and the handle snapping off.
On Friday 25 June 2010, her daughter, Janet Huon attended Ms McClelland’s home. She was unable to locate Ms McClelland and upon searching the premises located her mother inside the walk-in wardrobe of her bedroom.
He received a call from his mother at about 5:30PM in which he was informed that his grandmother had passed away. He thereafter joined family members at Ms McClelland’s residence.
Police arrived at about 6:50PM and set up a crime scene.
A post-mortem determined that the cause of death was asphyxia. Occlusion of the outer airways was the most likely mechanism.
Whilst the position of the knife blade was not believed to have caused a haemorrhagic complication, it was considered that it may have contributed to asphyxia by reason of its position in relation to the base of the tongue.
Ms McClelland’s body had been moved from a prior position to the final position in the wardrobe.
Police investigations established that he attempted to access her card via various ATM machines in Hotels.
He returned to Ms McClelland’s home where he used local papers to ascertain brothels that provided callout services. He made a number of calls and made a booking providing credit card details using Ms McClelland’s credit card account.
A sex worker attended between 1:00AM and 2:00AM on Friday 25 June 2010. An amount of $330 was charged on Ms McClelland’s card for sexual services.
He phoned another two escort agencies. A sex worker attended Ms McClelland’s premises between about 3:10AM and 4:10AM. He again used Ms McClelland’s credit card and an amount of $308 was charged against the account.
https://countingthewomen.wordpress.com/2015/02/17/doreen-mcclelland-25/
Regina v Tilak Neil Huon [2012] NSWSC 1092 (14 September 2012)
At about 7:30PM on Thursday 24 June 2010, he drove his vehicle to Ms McClelland’s home at Peakhurst. He knocked on the sliding glass door and Ms McClelland opened it for him.
At some point between 7:30PM and 10:45PM he assaulted Ms McClelland causing her death. This occurred where Mrs McClelland was sitting in a single armchair in the lounge room. He had obtained a knife from the kitchen and he stabbed Ms McClelland with it in the left cheek with the blade becoming embedded and the handle snapping off.
On Friday 25 June 2010, her daughter, Janet Huon attended Ms McClelland’s home. She was unable to locate Ms McClelland and upon searching the premises located her mother inside the walk-in wardrobe of her bedroom.
He received a call from his mother at about 5:30PM in which he was informed that his grandmother had passed away. He thereafter joined family members at Ms McClelland’s residence.
Police arrived at about 6:50PM and set up a crime scene.
A post-mortem determined that the cause of death was asphyxia. Occlusion of the outer airways was the most likely mechanism.
Whilst the position of the knife blade was not believed to have caused a haemorrhagic complication, it was considered that it may have contributed to asphyxia by reason of its position in relation to the base of the tongue.
Ms McClelland’s body had been moved from a prior position to the final position in the wardrobe.
Police investigations established that he attempted to access her card via various ATM machines in Hotels.
He returned to Ms McClelland’s home where he used local papers to ascertain brothels that provided callout services. He made a number of calls and made a booking providing credit card details using Ms McClelland’s credit card account.
A sex worker attended between 1:00AM and 2:00AM on Friday 25 June 2010. An amount of $330 was charged on Ms McClelland’s card for sexual services.
He phoned another two escort agencies. A sex worker attended Ms McClelland’s premises between about 3:10AM and 4:10AM. He again used Ms McClelland’s credit card and an amount of $308 was charged against the account.
https://countingthewomen.wordpress.com/2015/02/17/doreen-mcclelland-25/
Regina v Tilak Neil Huon [2012] NSWSC 1092 (14 September 2012)
2009
Krystal Fraser
Krystal Fraser was 23 years old and a few days away from giving birth when she disappeared from near a home in Pyramid Hill.
Krystal had an intellectual disability.
She received a phone call on her mobile phone from a public phone booth outside the Leitchville Post Office in Findlay Street shortly before midnight that same night.
It is believed the person who made that call was the last person to speak to Krystal before she went missing.
Detectives believe the young woman was murdered, but no trace of her has ever been found.
www.bendigoadvertiser.com.au/story/4738413/krystal-mystery-continues-eight-years-on/
https://www.bendigoadvertiser.com.au/story/4077546/coroners-report-could-hold-krystal-fraser-answers/
www.bendigoadvertiser.com.au/story/5319526/man-no-longer-person-of-interest-in-krystal-fraser-disappearance/
Krystal had an intellectual disability.
She received a phone call on her mobile phone from a public phone booth outside the Leitchville Post Office in Findlay Street shortly before midnight that same night.
It is believed the person who made that call was the last person to speak to Krystal before she went missing.
Detectives believe the young woman was murdered, but no trace of her has ever been found.
www.bendigoadvertiser.com.au/story/4738413/krystal-mystery-continues-eight-years-on/
https://www.bendigoadvertiser.com.au/story/4077546/coroners-report-could-hold-krystal-fraser-answers/
www.bendigoadvertiser.com.au/story/5319526/man-no-longer-person-of-interest-in-krystal-fraser-disappearance/
Peter Eitzen
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Mount Barker youth Peter Eitzen was sixteen when his mother Beverley drugged and stabbed him on July 26, 2009. He had an intellectual disability. The court determined her unfit to stand trial because she was depressed. It was one of only two judgments in South Australia where a personal has been found mentally unfit to stand trial because of depression. The other judgment was for a man who had shot his disabled son in the face ‘to save society the burden’.
In the ruling, the judge labored over Peter’s disability and support needs and the burden it had imposed to Beverley Eitzen. She walked free from a court room. The same judge, John Sulan, released Angela Puhle with a suspended sentence. http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-09-20/beverley-eitzen-disabled-son-trial/2907784 http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-09-20/beverley-eitzen/2907786 https://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/south-australia/son-killer-beverley-may-eitzen-released-into-community/news-story/b01807fb426ae59d290341ba5e693556 |
Tim Fleming
Tim Fleming was on friendly terms with his murderer and his murder happened after an exchange of a small quantity of drugs. Tim threw the drugs Marc Hepburn had attempted to sell him back in his face, saying it was 'shit', and that he'd be disgusted to sell it. In response, Hepburn began punching Tim in the face, then cut Tim after hitting him with a Samarai sword.
When Hepburn threatened to cut Tim's knees off, Tim said that his 'missus didn't need to see this' - Hepburn's partner was sitting on the couch, holding a puppy. Hepburn left the room ad returned with a Mossberg 12 gauge shotgun, shooting Tim in the head.
From the judge: 'At the time of his death, Mr Fleming was 33 years old. He was the father of two boys, now aged ten and seven. Mr Fleming had separated from his partner and was living in a caravan at his parents’ home. He had been involved in a major car accident in 2005, which had resulted in his breaking his neck. He had been hospitalised for two weeks and required to wear a neck halo for 20 weeks. At the time of his death, he was not working, he was awaiting further surgery and was said to be optimistic about his future. Victim Impact Statements were made by his grandmother, mother and father, brothers and sister. They speak of his compassionate and loving nature, and his own difficulties in life. They also speak of the grief, loss and pain that they have endured as a result of your senseless actions. No sentence this Court can impose can restore to them their loved one, nor can it diminish their grief and sadness. As Mrs Fleming said in her Victim Impact Statement which she read to the Court: “The senselessness and callousness of his death hit our whole family really hard”.'
http://www9.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/cases/vic/VSC/2011/77.html
When Hepburn threatened to cut Tim's knees off, Tim said that his 'missus didn't need to see this' - Hepburn's partner was sitting on the couch, holding a puppy. Hepburn left the room ad returned with a Mossberg 12 gauge shotgun, shooting Tim in the head.
From the judge: 'At the time of his death, Mr Fleming was 33 years old. He was the father of two boys, now aged ten and seven. Mr Fleming had separated from his partner and was living in a caravan at his parents’ home. He had been involved in a major car accident in 2005, which had resulted in his breaking his neck. He had been hospitalised for two weeks and required to wear a neck halo for 20 weeks. At the time of his death, he was not working, he was awaiting further surgery and was said to be optimistic about his future. Victim Impact Statements were made by his grandmother, mother and father, brothers and sister. They speak of his compassionate and loving nature, and his own difficulties in life. They also speak of the grief, loss and pain that they have endured as a result of your senseless actions. No sentence this Court can impose can restore to them their loved one, nor can it diminish their grief and sadness. As Mrs Fleming said in her Victim Impact Statement which she read to the Court: “The senselessness and callousness of his death hit our whole family really hard”.'
http://www9.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/cases/vic/VSC/2011/77.html
Shaun Moloney
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Shaun was 46 years old, used to work for Ansett and travelled the world. Following the death of a close friend, he spiralled into depression. He lived on a disability pension, freely loaned people money and was known to frequent various pubs.
Shaun lived at a boarding house that was profiled in a story in the Age in 2009 - a place which cost $250 per week but which had shared power for heaters and televisions and where there was little room to share more than a bed. His roommates, Darryl McHarg and Wayne Arthur, beated him unconscious after a heated argument, punching him in the stomach, face and head. Believing him dead, they drove him out to an empty block and set him on fire. That was probably what killed him, the pathologist said but it could have also have been the high alcohol level in his blood. |
Pair jailed for assault, not death
https://www.theage.com.au/national/facing-eviction-rooming-house-victims-emerge-20090703-d7ux.html
www8.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/cases/vic/VSC/2011/5.html
https://www.theage.com.au/national/facing-eviction-rooming-house-victims-emerge-20090703-d7ux.html
www8.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/cases/vic/VSC/2011/5.html
CT
From the Guardian Deaths Inside database -
CT, a member of the Mutitjulu community, died after being arrested and taken to Alice Springs watch house in January 2009. CT had dived head-first over a fence earlier in the evening and eventually died of the resulting injuries.
It was the opinion of the coroner, Greg Cavanagh, that while police actions or inactions did not cause or hasten CT's death, "prisoners should not be dragged, and if they're in such a state as to not be able to walk, they should be immediately taken to hospital".
Issues raised include medical care required but not all given, procedures not all followed, force used, mental health / cognitive impairment.
https://justice.nt.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0011/208766/a00022009-cedric-trigger.pdf
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-05-22/death-in-custody-at-darwin-city-police-station/6488976
CT, a member of the Mutitjulu community, died after being arrested and taken to Alice Springs watch house in January 2009. CT had dived head-first over a fence earlier in the evening and eventually died of the resulting injuries.
It was the opinion of the coroner, Greg Cavanagh, that while police actions or inactions did not cause or hasten CT's death, "prisoners should not be dragged, and if they're in such a state as to not be able to walk, they should be immediately taken to hospital".
Issues raised include medical care required but not all given, procedures not all followed, force used, mental health / cognitive impairment.
https://justice.nt.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0011/208766/a00022009-cedric-trigger.pdf
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-05-22/death-in-custody-at-darwin-city-police-station/6488976
Clarissa 'Sal' Callow
Clarissa “Sal” Callow was just two months away from turning 18 when she was beaten and strangled to death by her former boyfriend Bowan Taylor Wade.
Sal had cystic fibrosis and had told friends Wade had been stalking her and had threatened to kill her if she didn't get back together with him.
Bowan Taylor Wade had left the teenager either dead or in a state of reduced consciousness to the point she suffered asphyxiation because she was unable to move from the position in which she had been left.
He was jailed for fifteen years.
http://www.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/cases/qld/QCA/2011/289.html?context=1;query=killed%20vulnerable%20;mask_path=au/cases/qld/QCA
Sal had cystic fibrosis and had told friends Wade had been stalking her and had threatened to kill her if she didn't get back together with him.
Bowan Taylor Wade had left the teenager either dead or in a state of reduced consciousness to the point she suffered asphyxiation because she was unable to move from the position in which she had been left.
He was jailed for fifteen years.
http://www.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/cases/qld/QCA/2011/289.html?context=1;query=killed%20vulnerable%20;mask_path=au/cases/qld/QCA
GR
GR died of a heart attack in April 2009 after police sought to detain him for a mental health assessment. He was restrained and capsicum spray and Tasers were used.
The coroner found that the use of Tasers was unwarranted and recommended more training for officers around how and when they should be used. He also found that the actions of police "may or may not have" contributed to GR's death. No reprimands were issued.
Issues raised included procedures not being followed, injured in custody, force used, mental health / cognitive impairment.
https://justice.nt.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0008/208772/a00122009-gottlieb-rubuntja.pdf
The coroner found that the use of Tasers was unwarranted and recommended more training for officers around how and when they should be used. He also found that the actions of police "may or may not have" contributed to GR's death. No reprimands were issued.
Issues raised included procedures not being followed, injured in custody, force used, mental health / cognitive impairment.
https://justice.nt.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0008/208772/a00122009-gottlieb-rubuntja.pdf
2008
Faye Lorraine Silich and Robert George Silich
44 year old Vernon Robert Silich was found guilty in 2010 of kicking his 'vulnerable' parents to death with steel capped boots.
The parents were asleep in their Yokine home at the time. Silich's defence that he was 'sleepwalking' was overturned on appeal.
In his submissions, prosecutor Kevin Tavener said although Silich was affected by alcohol, he was still capable of forming an intention to kill.
"He was aware his parents were vulnerable and could not resist his attack," he said.
"It was a relatively prolonged act of extreme violence."
The manner of the deaths showed the "physical disparity" between Silich and his parents, he added.
http://www.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/sinodisp/au/cases/wa/WASCA/2011/135.html
https://www.watoday.com.au/national/western-australia/jail-term-boosted-for-man-who-kicked-his-parents-to-death-20110628-1goit.html
https://www.watoday.com.au/national/western-australia/silich-gets-life-in-jail-for-murdering-parents-20100416-sj0m.html
https://thewest.com.au/news/wa/man-guilty-of-murdering-parents-ng-ya-217085
The parents were asleep in their Yokine home at the time. Silich's defence that he was 'sleepwalking' was overturned on appeal.
In his submissions, prosecutor Kevin Tavener said although Silich was affected by alcohol, he was still capable of forming an intention to kill.
"He was aware his parents were vulnerable and could not resist his attack," he said.
"It was a relatively prolonged act of extreme violence."
The manner of the deaths showed the "physical disparity" between Silich and his parents, he added.
http://www.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/sinodisp/au/cases/wa/WASCA/2011/135.html
https://www.watoday.com.au/national/western-australia/jail-term-boosted-for-man-who-kicked-his-parents-to-death-20110628-1goit.html
https://www.watoday.com.au/national/western-australia/silich-gets-life-in-jail-for-murdering-parents-20100416-sj0m.html
https://thewest.com.au/news/wa/man-guilty-of-murdering-parents-ng-ya-217085
Vonne McGlynne
The callous and horrific murder of elderly pensioner Vonne McGlynn was spurred on by the most basic of human emotions - that of greed for money.
Latvian immigrant Angelika Gavare, a mother of two, killed and dismembered the pensioner in a bizarre plot to sell her Reynella house.
A Supreme Court found her guilty of murder in 2011, with her conviction hanging off key evidence from her mother, Inara Dombrovska, who testified that her daughter confessed to the murder during a Christmas celebration in 2008.
Prosecutors said Gavare broke into Ms McGlynn's home through the roof, and knocked her unconscious with an ornamental statue.
They said Gavare used a child's pusher to dump body parts in a creek near her Christie Downs home. Ms McGlynn's hands and head have never been found.
There was no forensic evidence to tie Gavare to the crime scene, but her attempted use of the pensioner's ATM card and a forged power of attorney made her the prime suspect, as did the smell of rotting flesh in her shed.
At trial, Gavare showed virtually no emotion, apart from laughing during police interviews. And then, she suddenly changed her story. Her lawyers accused her ex-lover, Giuseppe Daniele, of killing the pensioner in a hit-run crash and claimed Mr Daniele forced Gavare to help him stage a fake robbery as a cover-up, planting the ATM card in her car.
Mr Daniele responded by laughing - a reaction Justice Trish Kelly found to be truthful, and convicting Gavare of murder.
Gavare was jailed for life with a 32-year non-parole period, and has never explained where Ms McGlynn's head and hands are. She unsuccessfully appealed her non-parole period in 2012.
https://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/south-australia/some-of-the-most-notorious-crimes-that-shook-and-horrified-south-australia/news-story/44fe98668d454c5dc1f7c7a3c71ff269
https://au.news.yahoo.com/murder-uncovered-killer-confessions-angelika-gavare-part-1-34538147.html
Latvian immigrant Angelika Gavare, a mother of two, killed and dismembered the pensioner in a bizarre plot to sell her Reynella house.
A Supreme Court found her guilty of murder in 2011, with her conviction hanging off key evidence from her mother, Inara Dombrovska, who testified that her daughter confessed to the murder during a Christmas celebration in 2008.
Prosecutors said Gavare broke into Ms McGlynn's home through the roof, and knocked her unconscious with an ornamental statue.
They said Gavare used a child's pusher to dump body parts in a creek near her Christie Downs home. Ms McGlynn's hands and head have never been found.
There was no forensic evidence to tie Gavare to the crime scene, but her attempted use of the pensioner's ATM card and a forged power of attorney made her the prime suspect, as did the smell of rotting flesh in her shed.
At trial, Gavare showed virtually no emotion, apart from laughing during police interviews. And then, she suddenly changed her story. Her lawyers accused her ex-lover, Giuseppe Daniele, of killing the pensioner in a hit-run crash and claimed Mr Daniele forced Gavare to help him stage a fake robbery as a cover-up, planting the ATM card in her car.
Mr Daniele responded by laughing - a reaction Justice Trish Kelly found to be truthful, and convicting Gavare of murder.
Gavare was jailed for life with a 32-year non-parole period, and has never explained where Ms McGlynn's head and hands are. She unsuccessfully appealed her non-parole period in 2012.
https://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/south-australia/some-of-the-most-notorious-crimes-that-shook-and-horrified-south-australia/news-story/44fe98668d454c5dc1f7c7a3c71ff269
https://au.news.yahoo.com/murder-uncovered-killer-confessions-angelika-gavare-part-1-34538147.html
Janine Brockie
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42 year old Janine Brockie died from head trauma after her alcoholic partner, Brian Robert Andrew, punched and kicked her as she lay on the floor after an argument over her old boyfriends.
Janine was intellectually disabled and had been subjected to continual violence during her four year relationship with Andrew. She had had a stroke at 16, then acquired a brain injury after a car accident. Andrew was sentenced to a minimum of seven years behind bars. www.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/sinodisp/au/cases/vic/VSC/2008/138.html |
Graham Rollsbusch
Graham was a seventy year old former jockey who lived at Oakden, a nursing home in South Australia which was later the subject of a major investigation.
Graham died after suffering head and neck injuries in an attack in his room. He was bedridden and an 84 year old fellow resident with dementia, Peter Palmer, was charged with his murder. He had attacked Graham just weeks earlier.
Mr Palmer was found standing outside his victim’s door — it should have been locked from the outside — with blood on his hands before telling a carer: “I think I hit him too many times. I should not have been near him”.
Two months earlier the Commonwealth had sanctioned the state-run facility, warning it was failing to provide a safe environment for residents. The man accused of Mr Rollbusch's murder died before trial.
The coroner decided not hold an inquest into Mr Rollbusch's death and issued a death certificate in 2010.
The family wants to know why Graham was murdered through a lack of care - SA Health told them that the 'incident' had been comprehensively managed 'using the organisation's incident management system'.
In 2017, a study was published that found that the preventable deaths in nursing homes has increased over the past decade. https://www.mja.com.au/journal/2017/206/10/premature-deaths-nursing-home-residents-epidemiological-analysis
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-04-06/oakden-nursing-home-murder-haunts-victims-family/8422748
Graham died after suffering head and neck injuries in an attack in his room. He was bedridden and an 84 year old fellow resident with dementia, Peter Palmer, was charged with his murder. He had attacked Graham just weeks earlier.
Mr Palmer was found standing outside his victim’s door — it should have been locked from the outside — with blood on his hands before telling a carer: “I think I hit him too many times. I should not have been near him”.
Two months earlier the Commonwealth had sanctioned the state-run facility, warning it was failing to provide a safe environment for residents. The man accused of Mr Rollbusch's murder died before trial.
The coroner decided not hold an inquest into Mr Rollbusch's death and issued a death certificate in 2010.
The family wants to know why Graham was murdered through a lack of care - SA Health told them that the 'incident' had been comprehensively managed 'using the organisation's incident management system'.
In 2017, a study was published that found that the preventable deaths in nursing homes has increased over the past decade. https://www.mja.com.au/journal/2017/206/10/premature-deaths-nursing-home-residents-epidemiological-analysis
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-04-06/oakden-nursing-home-murder-haunts-victims-family/8422748
Carmel Wuth
77 year old Carmel was living in an assisted living complex -with her murderer. When faced with eviction, Maurizio Perini decided to rape, strangle, bash and smother her to death.
Perini had a mental illness and was in care for that reason.
http://www.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/cases/qld/QCA/2011/384.html?context=1;query=%22Maurizio%20Perini%20%22;mask_path=
https://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/mentally-ill-maurizio-perini-who-killed-carmel-wuth-77-likely-to-reoffend-if-released/news-story/c91036c49684225f7ed07f3eaa9d8e3c
Perini had a mental illness and was in care for that reason.
http://www.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/cases/qld/QCA/2011/384.html?context=1;query=%22Maurizio%20Perini%20%22;mask_path=
https://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/mentally-ill-maurizio-perini-who-killed-carmel-wuth-77-likely-to-reoffend-if-released/news-story/c91036c49684225f7ed07f3eaa9d8e3c
2007
Christopher O'Brien
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Christopher O'Brien was intellectually disabled and 22 years old when he died in March, 2007.
He was savagely beaten with fists and a hammer, aimed at his spine, neck, elbows and ankles and forced to drink poisons. At one stage he was taken to the bathroom and cleaned up before being returned to the chair to be beaten again. They made him do humiliating acts, eat chili flakes, burned him with cigarettes and wiped methylated spirits on his injuries. His body was wrapped in a red sleeping bag and dumped in bushland. His skeletal remains were found the following year. His abusers, John Likiardopoulos, Shalendra Singh, Darren Summers and an eighteen year old pleaded guilty to accessory to manslaughter and a sixth man, Hakan Aydin, was jailed for eight years. The group continued to receive his $300 fortnightly rental payments from the State Trustees until Christopher's body was discovered. www.smh.com.au/national/trio-jailed-over-disabled-mans-death-20080805-3qds.html www.hcourt.gov.au/assets/cases/m24-2012/Likiadopoulos_Res.pdf |
Janetta Rolfe
Manslaughter by suicide pact was the verdict of the courts. Rolfe survived but his wife did not. The suicide note was written by Bernard Rolfe.
From the trial 'According to Careworker Gayle Davis, your wife was non-verbal, incontinent and non weight-bearing. Careworker Ann Harris stated “from my observations of Janetta and Bernard I would say they could definitely communicate with each other even if it was not with words but only with gestures or looking at each other.”
12 In the months leading up the events in question, Dr Linton observed a marked deterioration in your mental health. This was in connection with the prospect of you and your wife being separated as a consequence of your wife possibly needing to go into respite care. You were prescribed antidepressant medication and sleeping pills. Dr Linton stated that “I consider that his extreme anxiety, and depression,...would affect his rational judgment”.'
The essential situation was well summarised by the psychiatrist, Dr D Sullivan, who, at paragraph 34 of his report dated 17 October 2008 and tendered before me, stated:
“At the time of the alleged offence, Mr Rolfe was clearly suffering a depressive episode, characterised by hopelessness, anxiety and irritability. It is interesting that he now perceives that at the time, no-one was offering assistance, despite the health services documents clearly recording that maximal services were involved and that all involved were increasing their level of input while trying to respect Mr Rolfe. The circumstances are suggestive of an impulsive and unpremeditated act, with no indication of preparation. It is likely that at the time Mr Rolfe was feeling hopeless about the future, with irrational thoughts, such as concern with the quality of food which was sufficient to justify death. The effect of the depression at the time of the alleged offences was clearly in my opinion sufficient to impair his judgment, impair his ability to think clearly, and this condition was the critical element in the alleged offending”
Rolfe was freed.
http://www.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/sinodisp/au/cases/vic/VSC/2008/528.html?query=
https://www.smh.com.au/national/elderly-man-walks-free-over-suicide-pact-20081128-6mt7.html
https://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/victoria/wifes-mercy-killer-walks-free/news-story/5d16422a862707a337c264f18221b4f8?sv=4fa7f48247b307d9787d0337e8d6511b
Janene Devine
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Janene was neglected so badly by her husband Andrew, a registered nurse, that she died from starvation and infected bedsores. He was sentenced only a year in jail for the death of Janene, who was 48 years old.
When Janene died at her Bull Creek home on April 16, 2007, she weighed only 30 kilos. The final inquest was not held until 2016, almost a decade after Janene’s death. https://web.archive.org/web/20180315064028/http://coronerscourt.wa.gov.au/_files/Devine%20finding.pdf Dead Mother ‘Looked Like A Skeleton’ Andrew Devine jailed over death of wife Janene, who suffered multiple sclerosis and weighed 30kg at her death “Filthy and infested with vermin” Man refused help for wife with MS |
Kate Bugmy
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Kate, aged 26, died of severe neglect after her father died – she had cerebral palsy, epilepsy and an intellectual disability. When her dad died suddenly, her mother and sister took over. They stopped taking her to her day program and she eventually died from malnutrition and systemic poisoning from infected bedsores. Her mother, Daphne Hall, and sister Jenna Bugmy, were not charged.
Kate died on June 28, 2007. https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/system-failed-disabled-woman-who-died-at-26-20100826-13uap.html https://www.smh.com.au/national/health-services-fatally-failed-woman-20100826-13t0v.html http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-06-23/kate-bugmy/9886744 |
Joseph Hollomby
94 year old Geraldton man, Joseph Hollomby, was violently murdered by Eric Peterson, who stabbed him to death.
Joseph was known as the Shortbread Man because of the years he spent baking goods for charity events.
Pedersen was 49 when he repeatedly stabbed Joseph Hollomby to death in the home he shared with his son.
A Supreme Court trial in Geraldton heard Pedersen had broken into the house to steal firearms.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-05-25/jail-move-angers-94yo-murder-victims-family/6495456
Ticking time bomb
Sentence for murdering charity worker upheld
Charity worker's efforts live on through foundation
jade.io/article/201770
Joseph was known as the Shortbread Man because of the years he spent baking goods for charity events.
Pedersen was 49 when he repeatedly stabbed Joseph Hollomby to death in the home he shared with his son.
A Supreme Court trial in Geraldton heard Pedersen had broken into the house to steal firearms.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-05-25/jail-move-angers-94yo-murder-victims-family/6495456
Ticking time bomb
Sentence for murdering charity worker upheld
Charity worker's efforts live on through foundation
jade.io/article/201770
Rebecca Lazarus
Rebecca was 25 years old when she was fatally stabbed by the man she lived with in a group home in Victoria. Her mother had had cerebral palsy and her dad was her primary carer. When he died, when Rebecca was five, she went into a series of foster care placements.
Rebecca lived at Hazelwood Supported Residential Services and met Travis Cooke when he was moved in by a service. Cooke was 31 years old and had a long history of paranoid schizophrenia.
Rebecca started dating him but after a while, Travis became violent. She told other members of the group home that he had hit her and broken her nose one time and that she was going to leave him.
Cooke stole a knife from Kmart and stabbed her outside the group home where she lived.
Other residents said that there had been serious issues with domestic violence against Rebecca, including him pretending to punch her in the face, swearing at her, calling her names. The staff said that they did not engage with her on any real level because the relationship was 'thought to be intermittent'.
There are enormous gaps in the care of Cooke, who was inappropriately placed in the group home, which was supposed to be a 'low risk' environment. He had made homicide threats and had been assessed as having an 'ongoing chronic risk of harm to others'. The coroner said that the 'circumstances in which Ms Lazarus' death occurred raises questions about the appropriateness of Mr Cooke's placement in a mixed gender and relatively low care facility'.
Although the Coroner spoke about Rebecca's murder as 'family violence', it has and is rarely regarded as such by the family and domestic violence system in Australia.
https://newmatilda.com/2013/07/11/why-did-rebecca-lazarus-die/
http://www.coronerscourt.vic.gov.au/home/coroners+written+findings/findings+-+252907+rebecca+lazarus
Rebecca lived at Hazelwood Supported Residential Services and met Travis Cooke when he was moved in by a service. Cooke was 31 years old and had a long history of paranoid schizophrenia.
Rebecca started dating him but after a while, Travis became violent. She told other members of the group home that he had hit her and broken her nose one time and that she was going to leave him.
Cooke stole a knife from Kmart and stabbed her outside the group home where she lived.
Other residents said that there had been serious issues with domestic violence against Rebecca, including him pretending to punch her in the face, swearing at her, calling her names. The staff said that they did not engage with her on any real level because the relationship was 'thought to be intermittent'.
There are enormous gaps in the care of Cooke, who was inappropriately placed in the group home, which was supposed to be a 'low risk' environment. He had made homicide threats and had been assessed as having an 'ongoing chronic risk of harm to others'. The coroner said that the 'circumstances in which Ms Lazarus' death occurred raises questions about the appropriateness of Mr Cooke's placement in a mixed gender and relatively low care facility'.
Although the Coroner spoke about Rebecca's murder as 'family violence', it has and is rarely regarded as such by the family and domestic violence system in Australia.
https://newmatilda.com/2013/07/11/why-did-rebecca-lazarus-die/
http://www.coronerscourt.vic.gov.au/home/coroners+written+findings/findings+-+252907+rebecca+lazarus
Barbara Ingam
Paddock was 78 at the date of the offence (22 May 2007). Barbara Beryl Ingram was 70 years of age on the date that Mr Paddock killed her. Their relationship had commenced in about 1987 or 1988. The couple lived in a relocatable home at Redhead Beach Holiday Park. Ms Ingram, who had a long-standing history of heart problems (Pulmonary Hypertension and Systemic Lupus Erythematosus [Lupus or SLE]), died of asphyxiation, caused by Mr Paddock suffocating the victim with his hand on her nose and mouth for some period of time with a significant degree of pressure (evidenced by associated injuries to the face).
From 2005, the relationship between Mr Paddock and his partner began to deteriorate. They slept in separate rooms, but continued to live together under the same roof. Mr Paddock displayed worsening features of paranoia and dementia.
At about 1.00pm on 23 May 2007, Mr Paddock’s friend arrived at his home, as previously arranged. Mr Paddock unlocked the main and security doors and stood back. He had blood on his face and neck and large lacerations on both forearms. The following exchange occurred:
Friend: “What the bloody hell is going on?”Mr Paddock: “I lost it mate, I lost it mate, I killed her, I killed her.”
http://www.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/sinodisp/au/cases/nsw/NSWSC/2009/369.html
From 2005, the relationship between Mr Paddock and his partner began to deteriorate. They slept in separate rooms, but continued to live together under the same roof. Mr Paddock displayed worsening features of paranoia and dementia.
At about 1.00pm on 23 May 2007, Mr Paddock’s friend arrived at his home, as previously arranged. Mr Paddock unlocked the main and security doors and stood back. He had blood on his face and neck and large lacerations on both forearms. The following exchange occurred:
Friend: “What the bloody hell is going on?”Mr Paddock: “I lost it mate, I lost it mate, I killed her, I killed her.”
http://www.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/sinodisp/au/cases/nsw/NSWSC/2009/369.html
Shellay 'Ebony' Ward
|
Seven year old Shellay died on November 13, 2007, locked away in her bedroom at her Hawk’s Nest home. Her parents, Sharyn and Blakely Ward, neglected and starved her – when they found her body, it weighed only nine kilos. Shellay was autistic.
Shellay’s room, bare and littered with faeces, had nothing in it except for a mattress. The window was boarded up. There was one decoration, a poster. Shellay’s emaciated body was on the mattress. Shellay’s door had been tied shut and when her birthday comes around, they hold it without her being there. They do not wash her and they do not dress her. Shellay was certainly failed by the parents who murdered her but she was also failed by the system, who ignored the many reports that came in about her neglect and abuse. Her 35 year old mother was sentenced to life in prison by a Sydney court and her 48 year old father was sentenced to a minimum of 12 years in prison for manslaughter. Later, her mother’s sentence was reduced to 30 years. |
https://www.themonthly.com.au/monthly-essays-anne-manne-ebony-girl-room-2248
https://www.theherald.com.au/story/497910/ebony-judge-restores-some-dignity-to-starved-girl/#slide=3
https://www.news.com.au/national/breaking-news/life-sentence-after-ebony-starved-to-death/news-story/902a2332e42517e926ee6bdaad7ffd32
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/life-sentenced-slashed-for-mother-jailed-for-starving-daughter-to-death/news-story/1f3cff6fbc5fd9478d41984539a525d4?sv=f65ea2466fa2494a3b621ea44b17fd26
https://www.theherald.com.au/story/497910/ebony-judge-restores-some-dignity-to-starved-girl/#slide=3
https://www.news.com.au/national/breaking-news/life-sentence-after-ebony-starved-to-death/news-story/902a2332e42517e926ee6bdaad7ffd32
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/life-sentenced-slashed-for-mother-jailed-for-starving-daughter-to-death/news-story/1f3cff6fbc5fd9478d41984539a525d4?sv=f65ea2466fa2494a3b621ea44b17fd26
Maia Comas
Maia was two when she drowned – she had been diagnosed with Rett syndrome. When her parents discovered her diagnosis, they told authorities they wanted to euthanase her. Her mother, a swimming instructor, said that she wanted a legal injection to put her to sleep and threatened to jump off a cliff if she was not removed from their care.
Her husband told DOCS workers that he and his wife intended to travel and that Maia needed to be moved on so they could free themselves up.
Two months later she was left alone in a blow up pool at her family’s Curl Curl home in December, 2007. The Coroner said that it was difficult to see why Maia’s parents, Samantha Razniak and Pablo Comas, had failed to keep her away from the pool, difficult to see why the pool was ignored in the search for Maia and difficult to understand why her mother did not do CPR.
The inquest had heard evidence from child protection worker Louise Wordon that the parents had made "troubling statements" regarding their child's condition.
Ms Wordon told the court that during a meeting Mr Comas had said: "I'm 32, she (Ms Razniak) is 28. What do we do with it? It's like a sentence, like we're dead."
Ms Wordon also said Mr Comas had asked why children "with these disabilities" were kept alive.
He had said: "It doesn't seem fair on the children."
He also questioned whether the Dept of Community services ‘behaved appropriately’ in their dealings with the family.
The Coroner found Maia drowned on December 3, 2007, ‘but whether or not her death was accidental, I am unable to say’.
An open finding was returned. Nobody was charged.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/parents-greatly-irresponsible-over-baby-maias-death-coroner-20110119-19vuc.html
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/coroner-returns-open-finding-into-toddler-maia-comass-pool-death/news-story/1855afddd8488548fdfcec2f5864dee6?sv=30e8644b327e053ee48233bc37771b41
Her husband told DOCS workers that he and his wife intended to travel and that Maia needed to be moved on so they could free themselves up.
Two months later she was left alone in a blow up pool at her family’s Curl Curl home in December, 2007. The Coroner said that it was difficult to see why Maia’s parents, Samantha Razniak and Pablo Comas, had failed to keep her away from the pool, difficult to see why the pool was ignored in the search for Maia and difficult to understand why her mother did not do CPR.
The inquest had heard evidence from child protection worker Louise Wordon that the parents had made "troubling statements" regarding their child's condition.
Ms Wordon told the court that during a meeting Mr Comas had said: "I'm 32, she (Ms Razniak) is 28. What do we do with it? It's like a sentence, like we're dead."
Ms Wordon also said Mr Comas had asked why children "with these disabilities" were kept alive.
He had said: "It doesn't seem fair on the children."
He also questioned whether the Dept of Community services ‘behaved appropriately’ in their dealings with the family.
The Coroner found Maia drowned on December 3, 2007, ‘but whether or not her death was accidental, I am unable to say’.
An open finding was returned. Nobody was charged.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/parents-greatly-irresponsible-over-baby-maias-death-coroner-20110119-19vuc.html
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/coroner-returns-open-finding-into-toddler-maia-comass-pool-death/news-story/1855afddd8488548fdfcec2f5864dee6?sv=30e8644b327e053ee48233bc37771b41
2006
|
66 year old Stephen Chin was divorcing his wife after years in an unhappy marriage. He had become a quadriplegic in 1999 and lived in a semi detached cottage.
Stephen was dependent on support workers who came several times a day to carry out personal care duties. His estranged wife, Grace Soon, went to his residence with two cans of petrol and threw one into Stephen's window and splashed petrol from the other one on the fence. Stephen burned alive. The judge said that Soon knew he would be unable to escape and that the act was 'extremely evil'. But she was only jailed for five and a half years. The judge recognised that Soon had murdered Stephen not just out of malice, but because she did not want to lose her house and money in a divorce proceeding. www.smh.com.au/news/national/wife-charged-with-quadriplegics-murder/2006/09/06/1157222160381.html www.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/sinodisp/au/cases/nsw/NSWSC/2008/622.html |
Kazimiera Hys
Brisbane mother Kazimiera Hys was living with her daughter, Agnieszka Alojza Miller, who was supposed to be her carer.
Instead, she let her 'rot to death.'
Miller, 46, pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of 76-year-old Kazimiera Hys at their Woodridge home, on Brisbane's southern outskirts, on May 27, 2006.
The Crown alleged Miller failed to provide her mother with the necessary medical attention leading up to the death.
Mrs Hys, who was 154cm weighed just 36kg when she died of sepsis caused by multiple bedsores, and some of the ulcers had maggots in them.
The court heard Miller was suffering from chronic depression and had become overwhelmed at caring for her mother since 2005.
The court was told that before Ms Hys lost her cognitive functions, she repeatedly refused medical intervention, telling her daughter it was her duty to care for her. Miller appealed her sentence after just twelve months, saying that her mother was 'domineering'.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/mum-died-with-maggots-in-sores-court-told-20101029-177bm.html
https://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/daughter-let-mum-rot-to-death/news-story/3618c6838c75339b1c33e816103b2487?sv=9079fd06092e127a3349bf2043422044
http://www.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/cases/qld/QCA/2011/160.html?context=1;query=%22elder%20abuse%22;mask_path=au/cases/qld/QCA
https://www.sclqld.org.au/caselaw/QCA/2011/160
Instead, she let her 'rot to death.'
Miller, 46, pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of 76-year-old Kazimiera Hys at their Woodridge home, on Brisbane's southern outskirts, on May 27, 2006.
The Crown alleged Miller failed to provide her mother with the necessary medical attention leading up to the death.
Mrs Hys, who was 154cm weighed just 36kg when she died of sepsis caused by multiple bedsores, and some of the ulcers had maggots in them.
The court heard Miller was suffering from chronic depression and had become overwhelmed at caring for her mother since 2005.
The court was told that before Ms Hys lost her cognitive functions, she repeatedly refused medical intervention, telling her daughter it was her duty to care for her. Miller appealed her sentence after just twelve months, saying that her mother was 'domineering'.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/mum-died-with-maggots-in-sores-court-told-20101029-177bm.html
https://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/daughter-let-mum-rot-to-death/news-story/3618c6838c75339b1c33e816103b2487?sv=9079fd06092e127a3349bf2043422044
http://www.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/cases/qld/QCA/2011/160.html?context=1;query=%22elder%20abuse%22;mask_path=au/cases/qld/QCA
https://www.sclqld.org.au/caselaw/QCA/2011/160
Graeme Wylie
Graeme Wylie, aged 71, had Alzheimer's disease and could not consent to assisted suicide. A Swiss clinic refused to assist him to die, so his defacto wife and one of her friends took matters into their own hands.
A Sydney court found Shirley Justins, 59, guilty of manslaughter and her friend Caren Jennings (75) guilty of being an accessory to manslaughter.
Jennings travelled to Mexico to purchase Nembutal and brought it back to Australia. One week before his overdose, Wylie, a retired Qantas pilot, drew up a new will leaving all but $200,000 of his AUD$2.4 million estate to Justins.
His previous will had left half the estate to Justins and divided the rest between his two daughters.
The prosecutor said that Justins was motivated by greed and sentenced her to a non parole period of 22 months with a balance of term of 8 months. Jennings suicided before standing trial.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1027813/Woman-gave-Alzheimers-husband-fatal-dose-drugs-Swiss-authorities-refused-legal-euthanasia.html
https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw/graeme-wylies-radical-will-change-upset-daughter/news-story/c0e5a50d014d11ceda50d5ff1f110b6c?sv=e9486f0bccd083c7e3e48dceb4e0e9b7
A Sydney court found Shirley Justins, 59, guilty of manslaughter and her friend Caren Jennings (75) guilty of being an accessory to manslaughter.
Jennings travelled to Mexico to purchase Nembutal and brought it back to Australia. One week before his overdose, Wylie, a retired Qantas pilot, drew up a new will leaving all but $200,000 of his AUD$2.4 million estate to Justins.
His previous will had left half the estate to Justins and divided the rest between his two daughters.
The prosecutor said that Justins was motivated by greed and sentenced her to a non parole period of 22 months with a balance of term of 8 months. Jennings suicided before standing trial.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1027813/Woman-gave-Alzheimers-husband-fatal-dose-drugs-Swiss-authorities-refused-legal-euthanasia.html
https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw/graeme-wylies-radical-will-change-upset-daughter/news-story/c0e5a50d014d11ceda50d5ff1f110b6c?sv=e9486f0bccd083c7e3e48dceb4e0e9b7
Linda Edith Blaaw
54 year old Linda Blaauw was mentally unwell and she experienced a relapse on May 22. She asked her husband, Donovan, to lock all the doors and windows, close the blinds and requested that he stay at home with her the next day. You both went to bed. The deceased took sleeping and anti-depressant tablets.
The following morning, Tuesday 23 May 2006, he telephoned his workplace to advise that he would be absent that day.
He brought her a bowl of cereal from the kitchen. He returned the deceased’s cereal bowl to the kitchen and took a knife from the cutlery drawer. He returned to the bedroom where the deceased was sleeping. He lay on the bed next to her and slid his arm under her neck, then he placed the knife to her throat and pushed it in. He held it there until Linda died.
The judge said this wasn't a 'mercy killing', it was murder. But Donovan was only given 11 years - 7 without parole - for murdering his wife.
http://www.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/cases/vic/VSC/2008/129.html?context=1;query=%22mercy%20killing%22;mask_path=au/cases/vic/VSC
The following morning, Tuesday 23 May 2006, he telephoned his workplace to advise that he would be absent that day.
He brought her a bowl of cereal from the kitchen. He returned the deceased’s cereal bowl to the kitchen and took a knife from the cutlery drawer. He returned to the bedroom where the deceased was sleeping. He lay on the bed next to her and slid his arm under her neck, then he placed the knife to her throat and pushed it in. He held it there until Linda died.
The judge said this wasn't a 'mercy killing', it was murder. But Donovan was only given 11 years - 7 without parole - for murdering his wife.
http://www.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/cases/vic/VSC/2008/129.html?context=1;query=%22mercy%20killing%22;mask_path=au/cases/vic/VSC
Gerald Fleming
From the Autism Memorial - https://autismmemorial.wordpress.com/tag/location-australia/page/1/
Gerard was a gay man who frequented a "gay beat"–a toilet block where gay men often met to hook up. He shared a beer and a chat with a young man and, apparently believing that the young man was open to sex, dropped his pants and reached out to hug him. The young man, frightened, stabbed him twice and left him to die.The young man pled guilty to manslaughter.
Editor's note: This is a complex case, and what really happened here is anyone's guess. Did Gerard know that the young man was only sixteen? Was he unable to read the young man's signals correctly? There was at least some hostile intent on the young man's part. The young man could easily have run away, since Gerard's pants were down around his ankles at the time, and instead he chose to stab Gerard; but this is at least as much a matter of quick thinking as it is a matter of moral judgment.
On the one hand, Gerard may have been intent on rape; on the other hand, the young man may have been so homophobic that he lashed out violently when he realized that Gerard thought he was gay. The young man did not know Gerard was autistic, but he did notice that Gerard spoke slowly. A combination of mixed signals, panic, poor judgment, the vulnerability of an autistic man, and the homophobic fears of a panicked teenager may have led to this incident. What really happened, we may never know, but Gerard is included here because I would rather include someone who was guilty and deserved what he got than exclude someone who was innocent and deserves to be remembered.
References:
Manslaughter verdict in stabbing case
Son's shame at killing autistic man
Beat stabbing ‘wasn’t gay panic’
Advances by intellectually disabled man cost his life
Gerard was a gay man who frequented a "gay beat"–a toilet block where gay men often met to hook up. He shared a beer and a chat with a young man and, apparently believing that the young man was open to sex, dropped his pants and reached out to hug him. The young man, frightened, stabbed him twice and left him to die.The young man pled guilty to manslaughter.
Editor's note: This is a complex case, and what really happened here is anyone's guess. Did Gerard know that the young man was only sixteen? Was he unable to read the young man's signals correctly? There was at least some hostile intent on the young man's part. The young man could easily have run away, since Gerard's pants were down around his ankles at the time, and instead he chose to stab Gerard; but this is at least as much a matter of quick thinking as it is a matter of moral judgment.
On the one hand, Gerard may have been intent on rape; on the other hand, the young man may have been so homophobic that he lashed out violently when he realized that Gerard thought he was gay. The young man did not know Gerard was autistic, but he did notice that Gerard spoke slowly. A combination of mixed signals, panic, poor judgment, the vulnerability of an autistic man, and the homophobic fears of a panicked teenager may have led to this incident. What really happened, we may never know, but Gerard is included here because I would rather include someone who was guilty and deserved what he got than exclude someone who was innocent and deserves to be remembered.
References:
Manslaughter verdict in stabbing case
Son's shame at killing autistic man
Beat stabbing ‘wasn’t gay panic’
Advances by intellectually disabled man cost his life
Crystal Peters
Little Crystal Peters was born prematurely with a 'weak neck'. Her mother, 21 year old Sarah, murdered her when she wouldn't stop crying, picking her up by one hand and throwing her across the room, she told the court.
A post-mortem examination found the child had a broken left arm, head fractures and brain haemorrhages when she died.
In court, a lawyer said that Peters was an 'almost perfect mother'.
He said that while the events of the day were tragic, her record with the baby, who was born premature with a weak neck, was close to flawless.
"It was one day in all that time when something happened," Mr Apps told the court.
"It is not a case where a baby was left in a cot, not fed or cared for.
"She was as close as she could be to a perfect mother."
https://www.smh.com.au/national/mum-who-killed-daughter-lost-it-court-20071107-gdrj34.html
https://www.smh.com.au/national/baby-thrower-an-almost-perfect-mother-20071113-gdrkts.html
A post-mortem examination found the child had a broken left arm, head fractures and brain haemorrhages when she died.
In court, a lawyer said that Peters was an 'almost perfect mother'.
He said that while the events of the day were tragic, her record with the baby, who was born premature with a weak neck, was close to flawless.
"It was one day in all that time when something happened," Mr Apps told the court.
"It is not a case where a baby was left in a cot, not fed or cared for.
"She was as close as she could be to a perfect mother."
https://www.smh.com.au/national/mum-who-killed-daughter-lost-it-court-20071107-gdrj34.html
https://www.smh.com.au/national/baby-thrower-an-almost-perfect-mother-20071113-gdrkts.html
Gregory Ross Stewart
Gregory Ross Stewart had split up with his partner, Diana Fae Hughes, but they stayed in the same home pending a property settlement. Gregory was 52 at the time of his death, when Hughes strangled him as he slept in an armchair at their home in Ipswitch.
She was sentenced to life in prison, with 1216 days declared as time already served.
Police were called to the home in May when Hughes was spotted by a neighbour chasing Mr Stewart - who had only one leg after losing a leg in a car accident - around their backyard with a piece of wood.
She hit Mr Stewart's prosthetic leg with the wood and, Mr Stewart alleged, cut him with a knife which she also used to "chop up'' their home phone.
A few months later, in August 2006, police were alerted by Hughes' barrister they would find Mr Stewart's body in the lounge room of the home.
Strangulation by a ligature - most likely a piece of rope - was determined to be his cause of death.
In a note, she'd written '"I doubt that I'll ever regret getting even with Greg. He deserved it."'
https://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/national/queensland/macabre-slideshow-of-murder-20091125-jrnd.html
www.smh.com.au/national/grandmother-googled-murder-penalties-before-expartners-death-court-20091125-jqzy.html
https://www.thechronicle.com.au/news/female-killer-loses-court-appeal/1504225/
http://www.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/cases/qld/QCA/2012/208.html?context=1;query=killed%20vulnerable%20;mask_path=au/cases/qld/QCA
She was sentenced to life in prison, with 1216 days declared as time already served.
Police were called to the home in May when Hughes was spotted by a neighbour chasing Mr Stewart - who had only one leg after losing a leg in a car accident - around their backyard with a piece of wood.
She hit Mr Stewart's prosthetic leg with the wood and, Mr Stewart alleged, cut him with a knife which she also used to "chop up'' their home phone.
A few months later, in August 2006, police were alerted by Hughes' barrister they would find Mr Stewart's body in the lounge room of the home.
Strangulation by a ligature - most likely a piece of rope - was determined to be his cause of death.
In a note, she'd written '"I doubt that I'll ever regret getting even with Greg. He deserved it."'
https://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/national/queensland/macabre-slideshow-of-murder-20091125-jrnd.html
www.smh.com.au/national/grandmother-googled-murder-penalties-before-expartners-death-court-20091125-jqzy.html
https://www.thechronicle.com.au/news/female-killer-loses-court-appeal/1504225/
http://www.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/cases/qld/QCA/2012/208.html?context=1;query=killed%20vulnerable%20;mask_path=au/cases/qld/QCA
Joseph Kelly
Joseph Kelly was 87 and lived in a housing commission unit in Camperdown, near Sydney. He was bashed in a violent home invasion by two women in October, 1996, and died of his injuries a month later.
One of the women who murdered him, Frances Megan Jeffrey, was his neighbour - she lived in the same complex. After the robbery, the two women left the unit, effectively locking it by pulling it shut. They left Joseph lying on the floor. Some hours later a neighbour was alerted by his cries of pain and distress and a locksmith and ambulance was called.
The women stole $700 cash from Mr Kelly. At trial, they gave conflicting views. In 2003, Jeffrey had been charged with a number of other offenses, including breaking into the residence of another elderly man and assaulting and robbing him. Her cooffender, Mealey, was described as living a 'largely transient' lifestyle and was staying with Jeffrey after the death of her grandparents and leaving her relationship with her boyfriend. She also had a criminal record.
Frances Megan Jeffrey was sentenced to a non parole period of 3 years and 6 months for the charge of manslaughter, and two years and six months for robbery. Raelene Erica Mealey was sentenced to a non parole period of 22 months and a fixed term of 18 months for robbery.
http://www.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/cases/nsw/NSWSC/2009/202.html?context=1;query=intellectual%20disability%20manslaughter%20%20%20;mask_path=au/cases/nsw/NSWSC
https://www.theage.com.au/news/National/Two-women-charged-with-murdering-old-man/2007/08/08/1186530430843.html
One of the women who murdered him, Frances Megan Jeffrey, was his neighbour - she lived in the same complex. After the robbery, the two women left the unit, effectively locking it by pulling it shut. They left Joseph lying on the floor. Some hours later a neighbour was alerted by his cries of pain and distress and a locksmith and ambulance was called.
The women stole $700 cash from Mr Kelly. At trial, they gave conflicting views. In 2003, Jeffrey had been charged with a number of other offenses, including breaking into the residence of another elderly man and assaulting and robbing him. Her cooffender, Mealey, was described as living a 'largely transient' lifestyle and was staying with Jeffrey after the death of her grandparents and leaving her relationship with her boyfriend. She also had a criminal record.
Frances Megan Jeffrey was sentenced to a non parole period of 3 years and 6 months for the charge of manslaughter, and two years and six months for robbery. Raelene Erica Mealey was sentenced to a non parole period of 22 months and a fixed term of 18 months for robbery.
http://www.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/cases/nsw/NSWSC/2009/202.html?context=1;query=intellectual%20disability%20manslaughter%20%20%20;mask_path=au/cases/nsw/NSWSC
https://www.theage.com.au/news/National/Two-women-charged-with-murdering-old-man/2007/08/08/1186530430843.html
2005
Grace Parkes
Grace Winifred Parkes died in Collaroy on January 16, 2005, after being bludgeoned to death by her son, Phillip Raymond Parkes. Grace was almost blind and had a number of serious health conditions and disabilities.
Phillip Parkes was a bus driver at the Spastic Centre in Frenchs Forest, driving disabled people from their homes and back. Grace, who was 83, agreed that she would give her son control of her ATM card and be a signatory on her account. When she was discharged from hospital to her home, her son agreed to be her full time carer in exchange for money to repay an outstanding loan on his car.
On the day of her death, her friend came to the house and found her in the lounge room with blood on her face, her nightdress and on the couch. Her son was not home. Grace had open wounds to her forehead, the top of her head and defensive wounds to her right hand.
Later, Parkes said that his mother ‘drove him completely crazy’, ‘nagged the shit out of him’, ‘kept bringing up the same topics over and over, like her childhood and the deaths of her husband and her daughter’. He had thought about killing her numerous times, he said.
Parkes meticulously planned his mother’s murder, choosing a weapon, ransacking the house and removing money from her purse. He struck his mother over and over again with a heavy piece of pipe, but she would not die. He wore disposable gloves. After killing her, he withdrew large sums of money from Grace’s bank account.
Parkes was sentenced to a non-parole period of thirteen years in jail.
https://www.smh.com.au/news/national/son-killed-nagging-mother-to-avoid-fulltime-care/2006/03/13/1142098392069.html
https://www.smh.com.au/news/national/nagging-mother-killer-gets-13-years/2006/05/05/1146335904553.html
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2006-05-05/man-jailed-for-killing-mum/1746520
Phillip Parkes was a bus driver at the Spastic Centre in Frenchs Forest, driving disabled people from their homes and back. Grace, who was 83, agreed that she would give her son control of her ATM card and be a signatory on her account. When she was discharged from hospital to her home, her son agreed to be her full time carer in exchange for money to repay an outstanding loan on his car.
On the day of her death, her friend came to the house and found her in the lounge room with blood on her face, her nightdress and on the couch. Her son was not home. Grace had open wounds to her forehead, the top of her head and defensive wounds to her right hand.
Later, Parkes said that his mother ‘drove him completely crazy’, ‘nagged the shit out of him’, ‘kept bringing up the same topics over and over, like her childhood and the deaths of her husband and her daughter’. He had thought about killing her numerous times, he said.
Parkes meticulously planned his mother’s murder, choosing a weapon, ransacking the house and removing money from her purse. He struck his mother over and over again with a heavy piece of pipe, but she would not die. He wore disposable gloves. After killing her, he withdrew large sums of money from Grace’s bank account.
Parkes was sentenced to a non-parole period of thirteen years in jail.
https://www.smh.com.au/news/national/son-killed-nagging-mother-to-avoid-fulltime-care/2006/03/13/1142098392069.html
https://www.smh.com.au/news/national/nagging-mother-killer-gets-13-years/2006/05/05/1146335904553.html
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2006-05-05/man-jailed-for-killing-mum/1746520
Kevin Chuter
Kevin was at a Melton football match with a group of intellectually disabled men and his two Dept of Human Services support workers when he walked into a toilet in the football clubrooms and drank a bottle of liniment.
The pair failed to get him immediate medical assistance and he died in hospital shortly thereafter.
The pair that were responsible for him pleaded not guilty to manslaughter and were acquitted.
'Carers cleared over disabled man's death
August 19, 2008
The Age
Two carers put on trial for the manslaughter of a disabled man who died after drinking liniment at a football match have no case to answer, a judge has ruled.
Kevin Chuter, 67, was under the care of Department of Human Services staff Joanne Pace and Kenneth Conduit when he drank the poison in a toilet at a suburban football match. The pair was charged with manslaughter through alleged negligence.
But Victorian Supreme Court justice Lex Lasry on Tuesday ruled there was insufficient evidence for a jury to convict the pair of negligence causing Mr Chuter's death.
After three weeks of the trial, he ordered the jury to find the pair not guilty. "After hearing extensive argument, I have come to the conclusion that as a matter of law the evidence, as it stands, could not support a verdict of guilty in relation to either Ms Pace or Mr Conduit," Justice Lasry said. "I do formally direct that you must reach a verdict of not guilty in relation to both of the accused."
Mr Conduit, 59, of Melton and Ms Pace, 38, of Melton South had taken Mr Chuter, who was unable to speak, and four other disabled men to the game. The trial heard Ms Pace was left to care for the five men while Mr Conduit was coaching one of the football teams. After Mr Chuter swallowed the poison, which he found in a water bottle in the toilets, it is alleged Ms Pace and Mr Conduit failed to promptly seek medical attention.
The trial heard the pair did not call the poisons information line until asked to do so by ambulance staff, hours after Mr Chuter had drunk the poison. He died shortly after he arrived at hospital.
As Justice Lasry announced his decision, Ms Pace held her head in her hands. Mr Conduit fought back tears. The pair made no comment as they left court.
Outside court, Mr Chuter's sister Julie described her brother as a quiet and gentle man.
"I can't believe ... they were negligent in not taking him to the hospital, I just can't understand that and I just can't understand why they let them go for that," Julie Chuter said.
The decision also angered Mr Chuter's other sister Janet.
"God help those who can't help themselves," Janet Chuter said.
"Just that someone can be so helpless and that they can not care for him."
Justice Lasry told the jury that it was "very rare" for a judge to find there was no case to answer.
"After anxious consideration, in my opinion I should uphold the application on behalf of the accused and direct the jury to bring in verdicts of not guilty," he told the court.'
https://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/victoria/liniment-death-carers-for-trial/news-story/8efca08cfdfb54c6ad1769ea1049b50a?sv=56dc8efba236e848bd54f54918ede167
https://www.smh.com.au/national/carers-cleared-over-disabled-mans-death-20080819-3y4v.html
https://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/victoria/liniment-delay-deadly-claim/news-story/3d3376ccd023600b7e67596bafa9e907?sv=336b9e763440acfdb1d0c2ef6a5fd7f3
The pair failed to get him immediate medical assistance and he died in hospital shortly thereafter.
The pair that were responsible for him pleaded not guilty to manslaughter and were acquitted.
'Carers cleared over disabled man's death
August 19, 2008
The Age
Two carers put on trial for the manslaughter of a disabled man who died after drinking liniment at a football match have no case to answer, a judge has ruled.
Kevin Chuter, 67, was under the care of Department of Human Services staff Joanne Pace and Kenneth Conduit when he drank the poison in a toilet at a suburban football match. The pair was charged with manslaughter through alleged negligence.
But Victorian Supreme Court justice Lex Lasry on Tuesday ruled there was insufficient evidence for a jury to convict the pair of negligence causing Mr Chuter's death.
After three weeks of the trial, he ordered the jury to find the pair not guilty. "After hearing extensive argument, I have come to the conclusion that as a matter of law the evidence, as it stands, could not support a verdict of guilty in relation to either Ms Pace or Mr Conduit," Justice Lasry said. "I do formally direct that you must reach a verdict of not guilty in relation to both of the accused."
Mr Conduit, 59, of Melton and Ms Pace, 38, of Melton South had taken Mr Chuter, who was unable to speak, and four other disabled men to the game. The trial heard Ms Pace was left to care for the five men while Mr Conduit was coaching one of the football teams. After Mr Chuter swallowed the poison, which he found in a water bottle in the toilets, it is alleged Ms Pace and Mr Conduit failed to promptly seek medical attention.
The trial heard the pair did not call the poisons information line until asked to do so by ambulance staff, hours after Mr Chuter had drunk the poison. He died shortly after he arrived at hospital.
As Justice Lasry announced his decision, Ms Pace held her head in her hands. Mr Conduit fought back tears. The pair made no comment as they left court.
Outside court, Mr Chuter's sister Julie described her brother as a quiet and gentle man.
"I can't believe ... they were negligent in not taking him to the hospital, I just can't understand that and I just can't understand why they let them go for that," Julie Chuter said.
The decision also angered Mr Chuter's other sister Janet.
"God help those who can't help themselves," Janet Chuter said.
"Just that someone can be so helpless and that they can not care for him."
Justice Lasry told the jury that it was "very rare" for a judge to find there was no case to answer.
"After anxious consideration, in my opinion I should uphold the application on behalf of the accused and direct the jury to bring in verdicts of not guilty," he told the court.'
https://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/victoria/liniment-death-carers-for-trial/news-story/8efca08cfdfb54c6ad1769ea1049b50a?sv=56dc8efba236e848bd54f54918ede167
https://www.smh.com.au/national/carers-cleared-over-disabled-mans-death-20080819-3y4v.html
https://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/victoria/liniment-delay-deadly-claim/news-story/3d3376ccd023600b7e67596bafa9e907?sv=336b9e763440acfdb1d0c2ef6a5fd7f3
Stefanie Christina Brummer
Stefanie Brummer was only five years old when her mother taped her mouth shut with masking tape, pretending she was playing a game. She put a pillow over her face and knelt on it. It took Stephanie twenty minutes to die.
Alice Potter, 43, told the courts that she had planned to kill Stephanie, who had developmental delays, the night before. But she couldn't go through with it, she said.
The judge said that the allegations Stephanie had made against her stepfather of being sexually assaulted had confused and depressed Potter and that she found her developmental delay 'hard to manage'.
Stephanie had been medically examined after complaining about sexual abuse and after the examination, her stepfather was charged with rape. The rape charges were then dropped. That was in mid-2005 and it was only a few months later that Potter murdered Stephanie.
From the court case - 'Shortly afterwards she phoned her husband and told him that he needed to come around and pick J up as she had done something. When he responded: “I love you” she replied:
“I don’t think you will after you see what I’ve done. Hurry up. Come and get J.”
Her husband then arrived and saw the deceased child lying with a pillow over her face and with tape around her mouth. The respondent said:
“I’ve had enough of S not doing as she was told”.
She then gave an account to him of what had happened. She told him that she was going to ring the police but told him to take J and also to take certain goods from the house...
At about 2.30 pm the ambulance arrived. The deceased child was found in the bedroom. The respondent said:
“I wrapped the tape around her. I did it around 11.30 am.”
She also said:
“She just won’t do what I tell her. She keeps doing the wrong thing and being naughty.”
She then made comments to the effect that she considered that the child’s grandparents (her own parents) were spoiling her, in contrast to never caring for or helping her. She also complained that after the child came home from her grandparents, she had to deal with her spoilt behaviour.'
On appeal, her sentence was increased to ten years, less time served.
https://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/mum-jailed-for-killing-daughter/news-story/db8dec8d4e2fe96e3fe648473a9e4cbd?sv=5b0afcfab9d392506da5ca4be090f224
https://www.queenslandjudgments.com.au/download/case?rep=63429
https://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/mum-jailed-for-killing-daughter/news-story/db8dec8d4e2fe96e3fe648473a9e4cbd?sv=5b0afcfab9d392506da5ca4be090f224
Alice Potter, 43, told the courts that she had planned to kill Stephanie, who had developmental delays, the night before. But she couldn't go through with it, she said.
The judge said that the allegations Stephanie had made against her stepfather of being sexually assaulted had confused and depressed Potter and that she found her developmental delay 'hard to manage'.
Stephanie had been medically examined after complaining about sexual abuse and after the examination, her stepfather was charged with rape. The rape charges were then dropped. That was in mid-2005 and it was only a few months later that Potter murdered Stephanie.
From the court case - 'Shortly afterwards she phoned her husband and told him that he needed to come around and pick J up as she had done something. When he responded: “I love you” she replied:
“I don’t think you will after you see what I’ve done. Hurry up. Come and get J.”
Her husband then arrived and saw the deceased child lying with a pillow over her face and with tape around her mouth. The respondent said:
“I’ve had enough of S not doing as she was told”.
She then gave an account to him of what had happened. She told him that she was going to ring the police but told him to take J and also to take certain goods from the house...
At about 2.30 pm the ambulance arrived. The deceased child was found in the bedroom. The respondent said:
“I wrapped the tape around her. I did it around 11.30 am.”
She also said:
“She just won’t do what I tell her. She keeps doing the wrong thing and being naughty.”
She then made comments to the effect that she considered that the child’s grandparents (her own parents) were spoiling her, in contrast to never caring for or helping her. She also complained that after the child came home from her grandparents, she had to deal with her spoilt behaviour.'
On appeal, her sentence was increased to ten years, less time served.
https://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/mum-jailed-for-killing-daughter/news-story/db8dec8d4e2fe96e3fe648473a9e4cbd?sv=5b0afcfab9d392506da5ca4be090f224
https://www.queenslandjudgments.com.au/download/case?rep=63429
https://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/mum-jailed-for-killing-daughter/news-story/db8dec8d4e2fe96e3fe648473a9e4cbd?sv=5b0afcfab9d392506da5ca4be090f224
Unnamed man
He had been described as 'slow' all his life, but with the onset of dementia, this frail man in his fifties had become unable to make good decisions. He lived with his father, who was his carer, but upon his father's death his niece took responsibility for his care.
Until he was sexually inappropriate in front of her infant child and then she kicked and beat him to death.
The judge said, ' At various times she conceded that she had punched or slapped the deceased twenty to thirty times, and that she had elbowed him and kicked him. These admissions were corroborated by the findings of the pathologist who observed extensive bruising to the trunk and noted some thirteen broken ribs. Her Honour found that the majority of these fractures, most of which were recent, were occasioned during the fatal assault. This took place on the afternoon of 12 March. The applicant had also assaulted the deceased on the previous day and I will defer any description of that event until dealing with a ground which is explicitly focussed upon it.'
Despite the fact that she'd punched him, sworn at him and dragged him into the house the day before, she was described as 'a caring, loving and devoted niece'.
KMB was jailed for seven years - three without parole.
http://www.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/cases/nsw/NSWCCA/2005/185.html?context=1;query=manslaughter%20vulnerable;mask_path=au/cases/nsw/NSWCCA
Until he was sexually inappropriate in front of her infant child and then she kicked and beat him to death.
The judge said, ' At various times she conceded that she had punched or slapped the deceased twenty to thirty times, and that she had elbowed him and kicked him. These admissions were corroborated by the findings of the pathologist who observed extensive bruising to the trunk and noted some thirteen broken ribs. Her Honour found that the majority of these fractures, most of which were recent, were occasioned during the fatal assault. This took place on the afternoon of 12 March. The applicant had also assaulted the deceased on the previous day and I will defer any description of that event until dealing with a ground which is explicitly focussed upon it.'
Despite the fact that she'd punched him, sworn at him and dragged him into the house the day before, she was described as 'a caring, loving and devoted niece'.
KMB was jailed for seven years - three without parole.
http://www.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/cases/nsw/NSWCCA/2005/185.html?context=1;query=manslaughter%20vulnerable;mask_path=au/cases/nsw/NSWCCA
2004
Gracie Sharpe
Gracie Sharpe was a 20 month old child with a physical disability, congenital hip displasia. Her disability was cited as causative for her murder and the murder of her pregnant mother, Anna. When she became pregnant again, husband and father John Sharpe decided that 'one was enough of a burden' and he purchased a high powered speargun and one additional spear from a local shop in Mornington.
On the 21st March the family attended a birthday party, then argued before going to bed. Sharpe fired the spear into his wife's left temple. He needed a second spear to kill her and was unable to remove them from her head without unscrewing the shafts.
The next day, he took Gracie to her childcare centre and buried his wife in a shallow grave in the backyard. He took Gracie to the same shop and purchased another spear for the speargun.
It took six more days before he put Gracie to bed and shot her in the head. With his child wounded and screaming loudly, he retrieved the two spear shafts that he had earlier removed from his wife's head, then returned to the bedroom. He fired both, but Gracie did not die, and it took one more spear to finally kill her. He wrapped her body in garbage bags and a tarp and took it to the local rubbish dump.
Sharpe talked on television about his wife and daughter's 'disappearance' and pretended she had left. In June, 2004, police arrested him and he finally confessed. Later, family members revealed that Sharpe had a history of sexually abusing children and thought that Sharpe may have killed his wife after discovering his abuse of Gracie.
Sharpe was jailed for life, with a non parole period of 33 years.
www.heraldsun.com.au/news/law-order/a-real-madness-washed-over-me/news-story/229d0a5d15c3641a251531fafe5876bf
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sharpe_family_murders
On the 21st March the family attended a birthday party, then argued before going to bed. Sharpe fired the spear into his wife's left temple. He needed a second spear to kill her and was unable to remove them from her head without unscrewing the shafts.
The next day, he took Gracie to her childcare centre and buried his wife in a shallow grave in the backyard. He took Gracie to the same shop and purchased another spear for the speargun.
It took six more days before he put Gracie to bed and shot her in the head. With his child wounded and screaming loudly, he retrieved the two spear shafts that he had earlier removed from his wife's head, then returned to the bedroom. He fired both, but Gracie did not die, and it took one more spear to finally kill her. He wrapped her body in garbage bags and a tarp and took it to the local rubbish dump.
Sharpe talked on television about his wife and daughter's 'disappearance' and pretended she had left. In June, 2004, police arrested him and he finally confessed. Later, family members revealed that Sharpe had a history of sexually abusing children and thought that Sharpe may have killed his wife after discovering his abuse of Gracie.
Sharpe was jailed for life, with a non parole period of 33 years.
www.heraldsun.com.au/news/law-order/a-real-madness-washed-over-me/news-story/229d0a5d15c3641a251531fafe5876bf
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sharpe_family_murders
2003
Jason Dawes
Jason was only ten years old when he was murdered by his mother, Daniela, on August 4, 2003.
Daniel, who was autistic, had his nose and mouth held closed as his mother suffocated him. His mother, who was painted as a devoted and caring mother, was convicted of manslaughter but walked free from court.
Phillip French and Rosemary Kayess, in a paper about the right to life of disabled people in Australia, said this of the case –
‘the trial judge constructed Jason as suffering, dependent and incapable and as constituting an intolerable and unimaginable burden on Ms Dawes:
‘Jason was a profoundly handicapped autistic child suffering from ... [Jason’s autistic characteristics are then interrogated in detail]… The practical reality is that the care in terms of daily responsibility to feed, toilet, bathe, educate, entertain and love fell to his mother, this offender. There is no doubt that this was an unrelenting, tiring, frustrating and never-ending task that very few people have ever experienced or are even capable of fully comprehending.’
Jason was portrayed as a principal cause of Ms Dawes’ depression, and of other stressors to which Ms Dawes was subject, such as his father’s emotional breakdown, suicide ideation, and resort to alcohol (which in turn resulted in Ms Dawes’ being subject to domestic violence). Jason was also portrayed as the cause of the breakdown of his parents’ marriage and his parents’ loss of community ties as a result of their moving from a country town to the city in an effort to obtain services for him
Both at first instance and on appeal, the courts appear to focus on Jason’s victim characteristics not as matters aggravating the seriousness of the offence, even though the relevant provisions are formally adverted to, but as matters mitigating its seriousness. Neither court does so in any explicit way, but their detailed interrogation of Jason’s impairment and disability-related characteristics and behaviour, and the impact of this on Ms Dawes, her husband and daughter, can lead to no other conclusion. This discussion does not resolve into any definitive statement about Jason’s value or humanness, but its effect is to construct him as demonic ‘other,’ and by implication, to offer a degree of excuse for his killing. This is particularly evident from the District Court’s specific reliance on evidence such as the following passage from Ms Dawes’ husband’s statement:
He was getting older. He had started to grow pubic hair. We began to ask ourselves how we were going to shave his face, and we were concerned that he may start masturbating in public. Daniela (sic) and I were frightened, concerned and stressed by Jason getting older and the things that went along with this.’
http://www.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/journals/UNSWLRS/2008/34.html?context=1;query=daniela%20dawes;mask_path=
https://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/05/31/1085855494917.html
Unnamed four year old boy
|
An unnamed mother of nine who failed to get medical attention for her four year old congenitally disabled son said she did so because 'God would heal him'.
The Sydney woman's husband, a church minister, was charged with manslaughter along with her but died of a heart attack. The child's body was described as 'emaciated'. She told the court she had not noticed his weight loss but she 'knew something was wrong'. The child died of pneumonia and a kidney infection. He also had fractures to his ribs and other bones and a doctor determined that neglect had 'directly contributed to his death'. She was given a suspended sentence. http://www.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/cases/nsw/NSWSC/2008/1368.html?context=1;query=intellectual%20disability%20manslaughter%20%20%20;mask_path=au/cases/nsw/NSWSC www.smh.com.au/news/national/religious-mother-admits-to-sons-death/2008/09/15/1221330747918.html |
Daniel Thomas
Little Daniel was two years old when he was murdered in Myrtleford, Victoria – but nobody has been charged for his death.
Daniel had asthma, eczema, a speech delay and allergies and died, they think, on October 13, 2003.
A coroner found that Daniel was subjected to abuse by his babysitter that included being gagged with old bits of towel, being tied to a bed, blindfolded, slapped across the face and made to lie on the floor in a starfish position. At other times, he would have to stare at the lino, forbidden to look at anyone, was placed in a cold bath and was locked under the house.
That was where a dog dug up his skeletal remains – beneath the house of his mother Donna Thomas’ former home. At the time he disappeared, he was in the care of Mandy Martyn, a woman his mother had recently met. The Coroner said that she came to the ‘almost unavoidable conclusion’ that Martyn was responsible for his death and that his mother, through her inaction, contributed to his death.
Martyn told people she had helped dispose of the two year old’s body.
Neither Martyn nor Thomas were charged with Daniel’s murder. Last year, in 2017, a news story said that Martyn was wanted for unrelated matters.
The Coroner said they couldn’t determine how Daniel had died, but it could be through strangulation, drowning or a head injury. Nobody has ever been brought to justice for Daniel’s murder.
Coroner finds babysitter Mandy Martyn killed toddler Daniel Thomas —but also blames his mother Donna Thomas for doing nothing to help the boy
Cackling babysitter Mandy Martyn denies killing toddler Daniel Thomas, gives reporters a spray
Daniel had asthma, eczema, a speech delay and allergies and died, they think, on October 13, 2003.
A coroner found that Daniel was subjected to abuse by his babysitter that included being gagged with old bits of towel, being tied to a bed, blindfolded, slapped across the face and made to lie on the floor in a starfish position. At other times, he would have to stare at the lino, forbidden to look at anyone, was placed in a cold bath and was locked under the house.
That was where a dog dug up his skeletal remains – beneath the house of his mother Donna Thomas’ former home. At the time he disappeared, he was in the care of Mandy Martyn, a woman his mother had recently met. The Coroner said that she came to the ‘almost unavoidable conclusion’ that Martyn was responsible for his death and that his mother, through her inaction, contributed to his death.
Martyn told people she had helped dispose of the two year old’s body.
Neither Martyn nor Thomas were charged with Daniel’s murder. Last year, in 2017, a news story said that Martyn was wanted for unrelated matters.
The Coroner said they couldn’t determine how Daniel had died, but it could be through strangulation, drowning or a head injury. Nobody has ever been brought to justice for Daniel’s murder.
Coroner finds babysitter Mandy Martyn killed toddler Daniel Thomas —but also blames his mother Donna Thomas for doing nothing to help the boy
Cackling babysitter Mandy Martyn denies killing toddler Daniel Thomas, gives reporters a spray
Jeffrey Swann
In June 2003, 47 year old Jeffrey Swann was bashed to death in his home, which he shared with David Hugh Laurie, aged 52. Both Laurie and Mr Swann had disabilities and lived at Lowther Lodge, a hostel at Brookfield for people with intellectual disabilities.Mr Swann, an intellectually disabled man, had been living in Lowther Lodge since it opened in 1983.
Eighteen months before Mr Swann was killed, Laurie moved to the hostel which houses intellectually impaired people who require constant care.
At around 5am on the day, Laurie went to the lodge’s communal toilet Mr Swann was occupying.
Laurie became enraged and pushed Mr Swann, punched his face, pushed him to the ground and began kicking him.
Mr Swann managed to return to his room, but some time later Laurie entered Mr Swann’s room, pulled him out of bed, kicked him, stomped on him and hit him with a chair until he was dead.
At Mr Swann’s post mortem examination, Dr Kevin Lee found 46 signs of injury and concluded death was caused by blunt head and neck trauma.
Mr Swann had suffered an extreme degree of damage to his head and larynx.
Laurie later admitted to police that he had killed Mr Swann, saying, “Yeah ... I knew exactly what I was doing.
“Yeah I did know. Actually I didn’t think about it, I just did it. I just really felt the anger.”
Laurie pleaded not guilty to murder on the basis that he was guilty only of manslaughter due to his mental impairment, but a jury found him guilty of murder regardless.
He was sentenced to 24 years’ jail with a non-parole period of 15 years.
https://www.theherald.com.au/story/3050416/killer-could-soon-be-free/
https://www.news.com.au/national/courts-law/mentally-ill-killer-should-not-be-released-from-prison-says-murder-victims-family/news-story/83ea1664afe8f476610500a177274e14
Eighteen months before Mr Swann was killed, Laurie moved to the hostel which houses intellectually impaired people who require constant care.
At around 5am on the day, Laurie went to the lodge’s communal toilet Mr Swann was occupying.
Laurie became enraged and pushed Mr Swann, punched his face, pushed him to the ground and began kicking him.
Mr Swann managed to return to his room, but some time later Laurie entered Mr Swann’s room, pulled him out of bed, kicked him, stomped on him and hit him with a chair until he was dead.
At Mr Swann’s post mortem examination, Dr Kevin Lee found 46 signs of injury and concluded death was caused by blunt head and neck trauma.
Mr Swann had suffered an extreme degree of damage to his head and larynx.
Laurie later admitted to police that he had killed Mr Swann, saying, “Yeah ... I knew exactly what I was doing.
“Yeah I did know. Actually I didn’t think about it, I just did it. I just really felt the anger.”
Laurie pleaded not guilty to murder on the basis that he was guilty only of manslaughter due to his mental impairment, but a jury found him guilty of murder regardless.
He was sentenced to 24 years’ jail with a non-parole period of 15 years.
https://www.theherald.com.au/story/3050416/killer-could-soon-be-free/
https://www.news.com.au/national/courts-law/mentally-ill-killer-should-not-be-released-from-prison-says-murder-victims-family/news-story/83ea1664afe8f476610500a177274e14
2002
Irene Agnes Ritchie
Wollongong mother Irene Agnes Ritchie was smothered to death by her son, 57 year old Geoffrey Robert Ritchie, at their Mt Ousley home on February 13 in 2002.
Ritchie, 57, admitted to smothering his mother with a pillow, but said he only did it to stop the pain caused by heart disease.
Irene was suffering from ischaemic heart disease, poor blood circulation, difficulty in breathing and increasing blindness. She had been informed that her heart disease could be cured only by bypass surgery, but the surgery was not offered because it was considered that the necessary anaesthetic would kill her. She was well aware that she did not have long to live. The offender, who was then 55 years old, was the adopted son of the deceased and her late husband. He had commenced living in her house in February 2001 following the failure of his marriage.
After killing his mother, Ritchie put her body into the back of his car and drove northwards out of Wollongong, eventually leaving it unburied in the bush, covered with branches. He set about pretending that the deceased had somehow wandered off and been taken away by others or had been kidnapped.
The judge said, 'The offender was well aware of the deceased’s state of health when he began living in her house. However, whereas he had been insulated by distance from the need to concern himself about it day by day, things changed. Although professional home care and nursing personnel visited the house regularly to attend to the needs of the deceased, the offender found himself to some extent responsible to do things for her. There must have been substantial parts of each day when they were the only occupants of the house. At such times the deceased, understandably, would ask the offender to do jobs for her. At night he was the only one who could attend to her whenever she needed help. She used to summon him by ringing a bell which she kept by her bed. He became anxious about when the deceased might call him and how he could help her. He was exasperated by the sound of the oxygen apparatus the deceased had to use.
A NSW Supreme Court jury found Ritchie guilty of murdering his 87-year-old mother. Justice Graham Barr said he did 'not believe it was a mercy killing'.
He said, 'I am not satisfied that the offender killed the deceased just to get his hands on her estate. I think that he did so in reaction to circumstances he felt unable to control or escape. His offence was hot-blooded. It was made much worse, however, by the vulnerability of the deceased and because it constituted a gross breach of the trust she placed in him.'
Ritchie was sentenced for a non parole period of eleven years and nine months.
http://www.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/cases/nsw/NSWSC/2003/864.html?context=1;query=%22mercy%20killing%22;mask_path=au/cases/nsw/NSWSC
Ritchie, 57, admitted to smothering his mother with a pillow, but said he only did it to stop the pain caused by heart disease.
Irene was suffering from ischaemic heart disease, poor blood circulation, difficulty in breathing and increasing blindness. She had been informed that her heart disease could be cured only by bypass surgery, but the surgery was not offered because it was considered that the necessary anaesthetic would kill her. She was well aware that she did not have long to live. The offender, who was then 55 years old, was the adopted son of the deceased and her late husband. He had commenced living in her house in February 2001 following the failure of his marriage.
After killing his mother, Ritchie put her body into the back of his car and drove northwards out of Wollongong, eventually leaving it unburied in the bush, covered with branches. He set about pretending that the deceased had somehow wandered off and been taken away by others or had been kidnapped.
The judge said, 'The offender was well aware of the deceased’s state of health when he began living in her house. However, whereas he had been insulated by distance from the need to concern himself about it day by day, things changed. Although professional home care and nursing personnel visited the house regularly to attend to the needs of the deceased, the offender found himself to some extent responsible to do things for her. There must have been substantial parts of each day when they were the only occupants of the house. At such times the deceased, understandably, would ask the offender to do jobs for her. At night he was the only one who could attend to her whenever she needed help. She used to summon him by ringing a bell which she kept by her bed. He became anxious about when the deceased might call him and how he could help her. He was exasperated by the sound of the oxygen apparatus the deceased had to use.
A NSW Supreme Court jury found Ritchie guilty of murdering his 87-year-old mother. Justice Graham Barr said he did 'not believe it was a mercy killing'.
He said, 'I am not satisfied that the offender killed the deceased just to get his hands on her estate. I think that he did so in reaction to circumstances he felt unable to control or escape. His offence was hot-blooded. It was made much worse, however, by the vulnerability of the deceased and because it constituted a gross breach of the trust she placed in him.'
Ritchie was sentenced for a non parole period of eleven years and nine months.
http://www.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/cases/nsw/NSWSC/2003/864.html?context=1;query=%22mercy%20killing%22;mask_path=au/cases/nsw/NSWSC
Gloria Sam
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Their baby daughter had been ill for days before they took her to hospital. Her parents were 'tired and jetlagged' and ignored her chronic eczema. Eventually, she developed an eye infection, but they still did not take her directly to hospital - they went to church first. Sick and malnourished, she died from an infection in May 2002, a week later.
Gloria had chronic eczema but the father, a homeopath, preferred to 'treat' her himself. Staff at the hospital said that they had never seen a baby in such an extreme condition. Thomas Sam was jailed for eight years and Manju Sam, Gloria's mother, for five years and four months. www.theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/parents-put-social-life-before-baby/news-story/971e96fd7b02361a3d10c3e4b3899889?sv=cdc88f55b5b9d680c32e727a1344300a www.smh.com.au/national/parents-failed-gloria-jailed-for-cruelty-20090928-g992.html |
Joyce May George
Joyce died as a result of neglect when her son, Phillip, failed to care for her.
Ambulance offices said that she had open pressure sores, was only 39 kilos, was covered in human vomit, faeces, urine and body fluids, some of which were ingrained into her skin.
58 year old Phillip George was the unpaid carer for both his mother and his developmentally delayed sister. He is autistic. Other family members stayed away and no help was arranged because of the state of the home. The shower hadn't worked for some time, neither did the bath and the toilet leaked.
She had not been provided with medication, a hygienic environment or even the most basic of care, the court found.
www.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/cases/nsw/NSWCCA/2004/247.html
Ambulance offices said that she had open pressure sores, was only 39 kilos, was covered in human vomit, faeces, urine and body fluids, some of which were ingrained into her skin.
58 year old Phillip George was the unpaid carer for both his mother and his developmentally delayed sister. He is autistic. Other family members stayed away and no help was arranged because of the state of the home. The shower hadn't worked for some time, neither did the bath and the toilet leaked.
She had not been provided with medication, a hygienic environment or even the most basic of care, the court found.
www.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/cases/nsw/NSWCCA/2004/247.html
2001
Joy Golbie Alchin
On 19 January 2001 Mrs Joy Golbie Alchin (71 years old) was found dead in her home.
She was lying face down on a mattress on her bedroom floor. Her wrists and ankles were tied together with grey duct tape and cable ties. There was a pair of underpants folded to form a wad against Mrs Alchin's mouth and a pillowcase had been placed over her head. There was duct tape wound tightly around her mouth, lower jaw and neck. It was the Crown case that the appellants, Ian Styman and Peter Taber, broke into Mrs Alchin's house in the early hours of 7 January 2001, bound and gagged her, robbed her of over $23,000 and then left her to die.
She died about a week later, alone.
Originally convicted of murder, the appellants appealed their conviction on the basis that there was no evidence that their conduct caused the death of Mrs Alchin. The main basis of this claim rests with the fact that Styman, after leaving the scene of the crime, made a 000 telephone call from a pay phone reporting a break and enter at Mrs Alchin’s house. However, this call was not acted upon. Later, both perpetrators were convicted of manslaughter.
Upon hearing of her murder, her daughter reportedly said that she was so disliked by her family if she had not been murdered by other people, she would have killed her.
R v. Styman; R v. Taber [2004] NSWCCA 245
(R v. Taber and Styman [2005] NSWSC 1292).
http://www.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/sinodisp/au/cases/nsw/NSWCCA/2007/116.html
She was lying face down on a mattress on her bedroom floor. Her wrists and ankles were tied together with grey duct tape and cable ties. There was a pair of underpants folded to form a wad against Mrs Alchin's mouth and a pillowcase had been placed over her head. There was duct tape wound tightly around her mouth, lower jaw and neck. It was the Crown case that the appellants, Ian Styman and Peter Taber, broke into Mrs Alchin's house in the early hours of 7 January 2001, bound and gagged her, robbed her of over $23,000 and then left her to die.
She died about a week later, alone.
Originally convicted of murder, the appellants appealed their conviction on the basis that there was no evidence that their conduct caused the death of Mrs Alchin. The main basis of this claim rests with the fact that Styman, after leaving the scene of the crime, made a 000 telephone call from a pay phone reporting a break and enter at Mrs Alchin’s house. However, this call was not acted upon. Later, both perpetrators were convicted of manslaughter.
Upon hearing of her murder, her daughter reportedly said that she was so disliked by her family if she had not been murdered by other people, she would have killed her.
R v. Styman; R v. Taber [2004] NSWCCA 245
(R v. Taber and Styman [2005] NSWSC 1292).
http://www.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/sinodisp/au/cases/nsw/NSWCCA/2007/116.html
Pamela King
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Pamela King was a very private person - she did not tell her daughters about the packed suitcase in the cupboard, but she was ready to leave her husband, Maurice King.
Pamela was disabled and used a stair lift to get to the second floor of her home. After an argument about money, she was beaten to death with a piece of iron. King became enraged because he had opened mail that showed that she had sold shares that she owned and she then told him she wasn't moving away with him. King, who killed himself some years later, was found not guilty by reason of experiencing depression and anxiety. Members of the legal profession describe Canberra as a 'murderers paradise' as few are found guilty of murder. You can read about Pamela here -and the court case below. http://www.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/cases/act/ACTSC/2004/82.html?context=1;query=manslaughter%20vulnerable;mask_path=au/cases/act/ACTSC https://apjl.com.au/articles/tesat www.abc.net.au/news/2007-10-19/court-told-murderer-had-spoken-of-suicide/703496 |
Annie Jessie Godwin
Albert Goodwin, aged 83 at the time of the offence, pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of his wife Anne Jessie Goodwin, aged 82. Albert and Anne had been married for almost 60 years.
On 4 April 2001 the couple had a domestic argument that led to Mrs Goodwin’s death. According to Mr Goodwin, he was outside reading the newspaper when his wife said, “I've made a cup of tea for the mong” (the term “mong” being a contraction of mongrel bastard).
There was then an argument over money and a set of keys. Mr Goodwin lost his temper and grabbed his wife by the jumper, causing her to drop the dinner plate she was holding. He then asked his wife, “Are you going to put that money back and the keys?", to which she replied, “No, I'm going.” Mrs Goodwin managed to pull away and run out the back door of the house. Mr Goodwin grabbed a knife from the kitchen and chased after her. He was able to catch her and grab her, again asking for the money and the keys. She replied, “No, mong.”
Mr Goodwin then suggested that his mind went blank; however, it is known that he stabbed his wife five times in the upper chest. Multiple stab wounds and associated haemorrhaging were found to be the cause of death.
In sentencing, Justice Coldrey made the following remarks: “A violent death caused by the hand of an elderly person is no less terrifying or permanent. Mrs Goodwin, herself an elderly lady, might reasonably have expected that the end of her long life would be peaceful and not traumatic. [However] your conduct ... has to be seen in the context of the tense and volatile relationship you had with your wife. The incident of the money and keys, although trivial in itself, was the culmination of what you regarded as years of verbal abuse, ingratitude and humiliation ...
This is a unique case and one which presents difficult sentencing problems for any judge. But balancing as best I can the sentencing principles enunciated in the Sentencing Act, and being as merciful as I can in the circumstances that I have outlined, I have concluded that the appropriate sentence be that you be imprisoned for a period of six years”.
Ref: Case 1: R v. Goodwin [2001] VSC 519 - as reported in 'Vulnerable victims: homicide of older people' (no link available)
On 4 April 2001 the couple had a domestic argument that led to Mrs Goodwin’s death. According to Mr Goodwin, he was outside reading the newspaper when his wife said, “I've made a cup of tea for the mong” (the term “mong” being a contraction of mongrel bastard).
There was then an argument over money and a set of keys. Mr Goodwin lost his temper and grabbed his wife by the jumper, causing her to drop the dinner plate she was holding. He then asked his wife, “Are you going to put that money back and the keys?", to which she replied, “No, I'm going.” Mrs Goodwin managed to pull away and run out the back door of the house. Mr Goodwin grabbed a knife from the kitchen and chased after her. He was able to catch her and grab her, again asking for the money and the keys. She replied, “No, mong.”
Mr Goodwin then suggested that his mind went blank; however, it is known that he stabbed his wife five times in the upper chest. Multiple stab wounds and associated haemorrhaging were found to be the cause of death.
In sentencing, Justice Coldrey made the following remarks: “A violent death caused by the hand of an elderly person is no less terrifying or permanent. Mrs Goodwin, herself an elderly lady, might reasonably have expected that the end of her long life would be peaceful and not traumatic. [However] your conduct ... has to be seen in the context of the tense and volatile relationship you had with your wife. The incident of the money and keys, although trivial in itself, was the culmination of what you regarded as years of verbal abuse, ingratitude and humiliation ...
This is a unique case and one which presents difficult sentencing problems for any judge. But balancing as best I can the sentencing principles enunciated in the Sentencing Act, and being as merciful as I can in the circumstances that I have outlined, I have concluded that the appropriate sentence be that you be imprisoned for a period of six years”.
Ref: Case 1: R v. Goodwin [2001] VSC 519 - as reported in 'Vulnerable victims: homicide of older people' (no link available)
Matthew Sutton
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28 year old Matthew Sutton was born without eyes and when he was due to have an operation which would have reduced his hearing, his parents decided to murder him on the eve of the operation. He was given a fatal dose of sedative, then smothered on a visit to their Leonay (NSW) home.
His parents, Margaret and Raymond Sutton, were convicted of manslaughter but served no jail time. As part of their defence, they spoke about the abuse Matthew had suffered in the institution he lived in. Justice Graham Barr said the couple had devoted their lives to caring for their son and "even the last act was one born of love for him". In 2014, the couple were found dead in their home. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2657700/BREAKING-Man-woman-dead-Western-Sydney-home-morning.html Double death of parents who killed their son Matthew Sutton Regina v Raymond Douglas Sutton; Regina v Margaret Ellen Sutton [2007] NSWSC 295 (4 April 2007) |
2000
Kudaratilaal 'Laali' O'Brien
Laali was not well, but her mother and father, Jessi and Peter O'Brien, refused to take her to the doctors. When her relative told her that her daughter looked unwell, she said she knew.
DOCS were called and the door was answered by Peter O'Brien, who threatened them. The police came and made the O'Brien's take the baby to the doctor. The doctor could see she was severely malnourished, thin and weak and said that the baby should be taken to a doctor. Jessi told them that it was 'against their religious beliefs' and that they wanted to take her to a naturopath.
The family immediately left for Queensland and took the baby to an unregistered naturopath, who said she should take her to hospital but agreed to treat her with naturopathic treatment. Over the next few weeks, Laali became sicker and Jessi told her friends that 'she was on her way out and dying, there's nothing more they could do'.
Laali died in her mothers arms about midnight on February 8, 2000.
Police found the body of O'Brien's 14-month-old daughter, wrapped in a blanket, in a vehicle near Raleigh on February 9, 2000. The discovery ended a statewide search for the child, after concerns she needed urgent medical attention.
A post mortem examination found the cause of death was malnutrition.
In handing down the sentence Judge Freeman said O'Brien had enough indications that his youngest daughter was gravely ill to warrant action.
"The prisoner conceded he made the decision not to take the child to hospital, instead he took her out of NSW," Judge Freeman said.
"I accept the evidence of Jessie O'Brien that she wanted to take the baby to hospital but this wouldn't have been accepted by the prisoner.
"He held on to his peculiar belief that all doctors are quacks and he knew what was best for his child.
Jessi O'Brien argued that her husband was controlling and that she did not want to take her daughter to the hospital for fear of reprisals. The judge rejected her defence of battered wife syndrome and confirmed her five year sentence. 53 year old Peter James O'Brien, who was regarded as 'more culpable', received eight and a half years.
https://www.portnews.com.au/story/990103/eight-years-jail-over-childs-death/
https://www.portnews.com.au/story/988786/manslaughter-case-in-port-court/
DOCS were called and the door was answered by Peter O'Brien, who threatened them. The police came and made the O'Brien's take the baby to the doctor. The doctor could see she was severely malnourished, thin and weak and said that the baby should be taken to a doctor. Jessi told them that it was 'against their religious beliefs' and that they wanted to take her to a naturopath.
The family immediately left for Queensland and took the baby to an unregistered naturopath, who said she should take her to hospital but agreed to treat her with naturopathic treatment. Over the next few weeks, Laali became sicker and Jessi told her friends that 'she was on her way out and dying, there's nothing more they could do'.
Laali died in her mothers arms about midnight on February 8, 2000.
Police found the body of O'Brien's 14-month-old daughter, wrapped in a blanket, in a vehicle near Raleigh on February 9, 2000. The discovery ended a statewide search for the child, after concerns she needed urgent medical attention.
A post mortem examination found the cause of death was malnutrition.
In handing down the sentence Judge Freeman said O'Brien had enough indications that his youngest daughter was gravely ill to warrant action.
"The prisoner conceded he made the decision not to take the child to hospital, instead he took her out of NSW," Judge Freeman said.
"I accept the evidence of Jessie O'Brien that she wanted to take the baby to hospital but this wouldn't have been accepted by the prisoner.
"He held on to his peculiar belief that all doctors are quacks and he knew what was best for his child.
Jessi O'Brien argued that her husband was controlling and that she did not want to take her daughter to the hospital for fear of reprisals. The judge rejected her defence of battered wife syndrome and confirmed her five year sentence. 53 year old Peter James O'Brien, who was regarded as 'more culpable', received eight and a half years.
https://www.portnews.com.au/story/990103/eight-years-jail-over-childs-death/
https://www.portnews.com.au/story/988786/manslaughter-case-in-port-court/
1999
Unnamed elderly woman
The victim was an elderly woman, who lived alone.
She had been repeatedly beaten around the head and neck with a garden stake. A patterned injury to her right cheek was found consistent with the forceful application of the sole of a shoe. Twenty four puncture wounds mainly to the left chest in groups of two were found on the left chest - they had been caused by a barbecue fork.
On the night of the offence, three youths entered her home and the offender attacked her. He was sentenced to 16 years imprisonment.
From the trial. “This was a very brutal and callous murder calling for most severe punishment. To inflict such horrendous injuries on a defenceless elderly lady in her own home must have been horrifying for the community in which she lived and very distressing indeed for her family. The applicant had no grievance against the deceased; the motive for her death was theft of her car. She became an opportunistic victim.”
The woman's name and age were not reported.
http://www.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/sinodisp/au/cases/vic/VSCA/2002/211.html
https://victorianreports.com.au/judgment/view/7-VR-629
She had been repeatedly beaten around the head and neck with a garden stake. A patterned injury to her right cheek was found consistent with the forceful application of the sole of a shoe. Twenty four puncture wounds mainly to the left chest in groups of two were found on the left chest - they had been caused by a barbecue fork.
On the night of the offence, three youths entered her home and the offender attacked her. He was sentenced to 16 years imprisonment.
From the trial. “This was a very brutal and callous murder calling for most severe punishment. To inflict such horrendous injuries on a defenceless elderly lady in her own home must have been horrifying for the community in which she lived and very distressing indeed for her family. The applicant had no grievance against the deceased; the motive for her death was theft of her car. She became an opportunistic victim.”
The woman's name and age were not reported.
http://www.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/sinodisp/au/cases/vic/VSCA/2002/211.html
https://victorianreports.com.au/judgment/view/7-VR-629
1998
Shi Rui (Serena) Wang
Shi Rui (Serena) Wang was 23 months when she was murdered by her mother, Joyes Hong Wang. Shi Rui, who lived with her family in Padstow, NSW, had cerebral palsy.
Her mother believed that her daughter would suffer ‘like she’d seen on TV, like the orphans in China, those babies or disabled people’. She believed that her husband could not cope with having a brain damaged child and thought he blamed her for giving him a ‘sick baby’. They kept Shi Rui’s cerebral palsy secret from their families in China, because of ‘shame’.
There was evidence that Joyes’ husband, Yujian Alan Wong, was having an affair and also that he had a ‘desire for perfection’ in all areas of his life. Her psychiatrist said that Joyes told them that he thought it shameful that he had a ‘defective’ daughter.
Wong made preparations to travel overseas and Joyes made plans to kill herself. She made funeral plans, including advising a friend to purchase plaques for her daughter and herself, complete with the date of their deaths, two days from that date.
Joyes strangled her husband and ambulance officers found him with flat woven cord wrapped around his neck. Upstairs, in a storage area, was Shi Rui’s body – Joyes had dressed her in a red jumpsuit, multi-coloured socks and red shoes and killed her with oxazepan. Joyes attempted suicide but was revived. It was 22nd September, 1998.
The court accepted that her capacity to judge was impaired by an abnormality of mind and sentenced her to two years imprisonment for the manslaughter of Shi Rui Wang, plus six years for the manslaughter of Yujian Alan Wang.
http://www.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/sinodisp/au/cases/nsw/NSWSC/2000/447.html?stem=0&synonyms=0&query=cerebral+palsy
Her mother believed that her daughter would suffer ‘like she’d seen on TV, like the orphans in China, those babies or disabled people’. She believed that her husband could not cope with having a brain damaged child and thought he blamed her for giving him a ‘sick baby’. They kept Shi Rui’s cerebral palsy secret from their families in China, because of ‘shame’.
There was evidence that Joyes’ husband, Yujian Alan Wong, was having an affair and also that he had a ‘desire for perfection’ in all areas of his life. Her psychiatrist said that Joyes told them that he thought it shameful that he had a ‘defective’ daughter.
Wong made preparations to travel overseas and Joyes made plans to kill herself. She made funeral plans, including advising a friend to purchase plaques for her daughter and herself, complete with the date of their deaths, two days from that date.
Joyes strangled her husband and ambulance officers found him with flat woven cord wrapped around his neck. Upstairs, in a storage area, was Shi Rui’s body – Joyes had dressed her in a red jumpsuit, multi-coloured socks and red shoes and killed her with oxazepan. Joyes attempted suicide but was revived. It was 22nd September, 1998.
The court accepted that her capacity to judge was impaired by an abnormality of mind and sentenced her to two years imprisonment for the manslaughter of Shi Rui Wang, plus six years for the manslaughter of Yujian Alan Wang.
http://www.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/sinodisp/au/cases/nsw/NSWSC/2000/447.html?stem=0&synonyms=0&query=cerebral+palsy
Shannon John Faichney
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Shannon was living with Deborah Anne McDonald, her husband and another young person. On the afternoon of 6 June, 1998, he was beaten by the other young person (aged 14 or 15 and identified onnly as BJT) with such ferocity that his injuries killed him.
The judge, speaking of those injuries, said, 'Simply appalling. On almost every aspect of the body the examination revealed a variety of injuries consistent only with prolonged and repeated physical abuse derived from a variety of sources and objects. Death was due to a collection of blood over the brain. This had been caused by trauma probably in the form of the head being violently shaken or hit against a flat surface such as to cause the wide spread bruising of the face. The victim was aged chronologically seventeen but his developmental age was closer to about twelve." The court was presented a summary of the relevant background of Shannon Faichney. It ran close to five typed pages spanning the years from 1986-1998. The judge said it demonstrated a history of abuse and cruelty of a kind which one would have hoped would have ceased long ere this to be present in any part of the contemporary Australian community. 'It needs to be understood as well,' the judge said, 'that the victim stood in height about 160 cms; that is to say, about five feet and three or four inches, his body weight was forty kilograms; that is to say, a little more than six, and a little less than six and a half, stone. The autopsy report reveals that he was physically underdeveloped; probably undernourished. He was in no position to protect himself against any kind of serious physical assault, and certainly not against an assault of the ferocity of the one which took place on the occasion of which I have earlier spoken. In almost every aspect of his daily living this particular victim was dependent in a real and substantial way upon other people.' |
Shannon was beaten every day for ten days before his death. The violence escalated until Shannon lay unconscious on the floor. McDonald did not do anything to prevent this violence or help Shannon - she did not seek medical help and Shannon died of his injuries.
http://www.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/cases/nsw/NSWCCA/2001/301.html?context=1;query=intellectual%20disability%20manslaughter%20%20%20;mask_path=au/cases/nsw/NSWCCA
http://www.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/cases/nsw/NSWCCA/2001/301.html?context=1;query=intellectual%20disability%20manslaughter%20%20%20;mask_path=au/cases/nsw/NSWCCA
Frederick Brooks
Frederick was an intellectually disabled teenager (18) who was murdered in the Snowtown serial killings. He was the son of Jodie Elliot, Elizabeth Haydon's sister. Frederick was last seen alive on 17 September, 1998.
They found his body in a barrel in a vault in Snowtown with other victims. His body was was found in a barrel in the vault. Thumb cuffs were loose in the barrel with the body. His wrists were held behind his body by handcuffs. A gag was in Frederick's mouth and ducting tape had been applied across the mouth and over the head. The lower limbs were held flexed by knotted electrical cord. There was a loss of soft tissue over the left knee.
Mr Brooks was living in Murray Bridge when Bunting, Wagner and Vlassakis killed him during a depraved torture session in a bathtub — again with songs from the Throwing Copper album playing as the soundtrack.
Vlassakis described the unimaginable torture that Frederick was subjected to.
He was forced to call Wagner “God” and Bunting “master”.
He was made to repeat into a tape recorder abusive phrases — including false confessions about having sexually abused young girls — and to reveal his PIN and other financial details. While handcuffed and thumbcuffed semi-naked in a bath, he was punched and injected in his testicles. He had electrodes attached to them. Lit cigarette butts were placed in his nose and ears. A lit sparkler was inserted in his penis. He was bashed to death, wrapped in plastic and placed in the boot of a car. According to a Court of Appeal judge: “After Brooks was murdered, Bunting described him as a ‘good one’ as he did not scream and he ‘took the pain’.
After Frederick's body had been disposed of, a message was sent to his mother, Jodie Elliot, that contained a tape recording of Frederick's voice. Vlassakis impersonated him in order to get his Centrelink benefits, open new accounts, and apply for new benefits.
They found his body in a barrel in a vault in Snowtown with other victims. His body was was found in a barrel in the vault. Thumb cuffs were loose in the barrel with the body. His wrists were held behind his body by handcuffs. A gag was in Frederick's mouth and ducting tape had been applied across the mouth and over the head. The lower limbs were held flexed by knotted electrical cord. There was a loss of soft tissue over the left knee.
Mr Brooks was living in Murray Bridge when Bunting, Wagner and Vlassakis killed him during a depraved torture session in a bathtub — again with songs from the Throwing Copper album playing as the soundtrack.
Vlassakis described the unimaginable torture that Frederick was subjected to.
He was forced to call Wagner “God” and Bunting “master”.
He was made to repeat into a tape recorder abusive phrases — including false confessions about having sexually abused young girls — and to reveal his PIN and other financial details. While handcuffed and thumbcuffed semi-naked in a bath, he was punched and injected in his testicles. He had electrodes attached to them. Lit cigarette butts were placed in his nose and ears. A lit sparkler was inserted in his penis. He was bashed to death, wrapped in plastic and placed in the boot of a car. According to a Court of Appeal judge: “After Brooks was murdered, Bunting described him as a ‘good one’ as he did not scream and he ‘took the pain’.
After Frederick's body had been disposed of, a message was sent to his mother, Jodie Elliot, that contained a tape recording of Frederick's voice. Vlassakis impersonated him in order to get his Centrelink benefits, open new accounts, and apply for new benefits.
Gary O'Dwyer
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29 year old Gary O'Dwyer had been injured in a car accident and was on a disability pension. His money was managed by the Public Trustee. He was a stranger, picked as an easy target by the Snowtown serial killers and was killed in his home in Frances Street, Murray Bridge, by Bunting, Wagner and Vlassakis.
Gary had an intellectual disability and walked with a limp. He was picked out and marked for death because of the way that he looked, Bunting said. Gary was invited over for drinks then grabbed, handcuffed and tortured. Gary had a seizure and Bunting told Wagner to 'ease off a bit'. After his death, Bunting took all his furniture, accessed his bank acccount and appropriated his payments. Gary's body was found in a barrel in the Snowtown vault and was identified by dental records, fingerprints and tattoos. The postmortem showed a number of marks on his upper arm and chest consistent with alligator clips and a variac machine being used. |
Margaret 'Peggy' Lauritsen
67 year old Margaret had provided a home for Anthony, aged 22, because his parents 'did not look after him', the judge said. He started drinking and attacked and threatened his aunt, Helen, with an axe. He was assessed under the Mental Health act but there were insufficient grounds for him to be committed.
He was no longer permitted to stay at his grandmother's home.
Another aunt, Carol, took him into her Gosnells home. He made threats again and told Carol that 'Auntie Helen will be dead tonight'. Anthony took knives and hid them around the kitchen.
He had been looking at videos of a very violent nature, including one that involved disembowelling. He had expressed admiration for Martin Bryant, a serial killre in Tasmania.
Anthony started drinking and then attacked his grandmother with a lawn edger and a hammer. He beat her to death, severed her head, disembowelled her and took her stomach contents out of her body. He then killed her poodle, Susie.
https://thewest.com.au/news/crime/granny-killer-anthony-grant-lauritsen-set-for-parole-review-ng-b88748656z
https://www.perthnow.com.au/news/crime/perth-man-who-murdered-grandmother-set-for-parole-review-ng-b88744626z
He was no longer permitted to stay at his grandmother's home.
Another aunt, Carol, took him into her Gosnells home. He made threats again and told Carol that 'Auntie Helen will be dead tonight'. Anthony took knives and hid them around the kitchen.
He had been looking at videos of a very violent nature, including one that involved disembowelling. He had expressed admiration for Martin Bryant, a serial killre in Tasmania.
Anthony started drinking and then attacked his grandmother with a lawn edger and a hammer. He beat her to death, severed her head, disembowelled her and took her stomach contents out of her body. He then killed her poodle, Susie.
https://thewest.com.au/news/crime/granny-killer-anthony-grant-lauritsen-set-for-parole-review-ng-b88748656z
https://www.perthnow.com.au/news/crime/perth-man-who-murdered-grandmother-set-for-parole-review-ng-b88744626z
1997
18 year old Thomas Eugenio Trevilyan was schizophrenic and experienced hallucinations, so when a Coroner initially ruled his death a suicide, nobody said a thing - there was no evidence to suggest a second person was involved. Thomas was found hanging from a tree in Adelaide on 5 November 1997.
Police later linked his death to the Snowtown murders.
Thomas wore only army style clothing. He would at time run outside his house with a knife if he heard unfamiliar noises, and was known to regularly travel long distances on foot. He shared a house with Barry Lane for a period of five months from April to October 1997. Trevilyan had assisted Bunting and Wagner in the earlier murder of Barry Lane. Bunting murdered Trevilyan after finding out he told others of his involvement in Lane's murder.
Shortly before Lane's death, Thomas moved in with Wagner, his defacto wife Vicki Mills and her children. Wagner had encouraged it, saying he had to move because Lane was a paedophile. But Wagner and Mills soon became annoyed by Thomas's behaviour - he 'upset' the children, they said, and told people he was involved in Lane's murder. Mills says that Thomas was 'crazy', that at first they were able to talk, but later he would chop and change subjects and went for walks on his own.
On the day before he died, the court was told, he was chasing Mills' daughter, who was carrying a puppy, around the front yard with an army knife. He was threatening to cut the dog's throat. The child ran around a car to keep away from him. Mills was threatening him to stop. A passerby took the dog. On that day, Thomas withdrew all the money he had in the bank, $280.
Bunting told others that Thomas had started to "fuck up" and "go mental" and that he would be a risk.
Thomas was driven to Kersbrook in the Adelaide Hills by Bunting and Wagner. He was forced to stand on a box while a noose was fastened around his neck and the box kicked from under him. Wagner told Mills that they had driven him to Gawler and left him there to teach him a lesson. Later, Bunting told Vlassakis that Trevilyn had been killed because he was 'a fuck-up'.
Thomas Trevilyan's body was found on 5 November 1997. Bunting said that he and Wagner had hung Thomas from a tree. They made him stand on a milk crate and it was kicked out from under him. He said it was easy to make it look like a suicide by leaving money in his pocket.
Police later linked his death to the Snowtown murders.
Thomas wore only army style clothing. He would at time run outside his house with a knife if he heard unfamiliar noises, and was known to regularly travel long distances on foot. He shared a house with Barry Lane for a period of five months from April to October 1997. Trevilyan had assisted Bunting and Wagner in the earlier murder of Barry Lane. Bunting murdered Trevilyan after finding out he told others of his involvement in Lane's murder.
Shortly before Lane's death, Thomas moved in with Wagner, his defacto wife Vicki Mills and her children. Wagner had encouraged it, saying he had to move because Lane was a paedophile. But Wagner and Mills soon became annoyed by Thomas's behaviour - he 'upset' the children, they said, and told people he was involved in Lane's murder. Mills says that Thomas was 'crazy', that at first they were able to talk, but later he would chop and change subjects and went for walks on his own.
On the day before he died, the court was told, he was chasing Mills' daughter, who was carrying a puppy, around the front yard with an army knife. He was threatening to cut the dog's throat. The child ran around a car to keep away from him. Mills was threatening him to stop. A passerby took the dog. On that day, Thomas withdrew all the money he had in the bank, $280.
Bunting told others that Thomas had started to "fuck up" and "go mental" and that he would be a risk.
Thomas was driven to Kersbrook in the Adelaide Hills by Bunting and Wagner. He was forced to stand on a box while a noose was fastened around his neck and the box kicked from under him. Wagner told Mills that they had driven him to Gawler and left him there to teach him a lesson. Later, Bunting told Vlassakis that Trevilyn had been killed because he was 'a fuck-up'.
Thomas Trevilyan's body was found on 5 November 1997. Bunting said that he and Wagner had hung Thomas from a tree. They made him stand on a milk crate and it was kicked out from under him. He said it was easy to make it look like a suicide by leaving money in his pocket.
1996
Gary Henderson
They found Gary Henderson's body on the afternoon of 28th August, 1996. It was lying on a mud bank adjacent to the waters edge near the Silverwater boat ramp at Lansvale.
Gary was 35, single and had cerebral palsy. He had a mobility impairment and was intellectually disabled. The pathologist said that death was caused by head, chest and abdominal injury, compression of the neck and probably drowning.
Colin David Simpson was sentenced to twelve months for maliciously inflicting grievious bodily harm on Gary - Colin George Hanslow was charged with being an accessory after the fact. Susan Hall pleaded guilty to Gary's manslaughter.
Susan and Colin Simpson, who also had an intellectual disability, rented a caravan at the Lansvale Caravan Park. Gary came to stay with them and gave Susan his bank card - she bought food and other items for him. On or around the 19th August, Colin Simpson inflicted a severe beating on Gary. The Crown's case against Susan Hall was that she should have obtained medical advice for him and failed to do so - the case against Colin Hanslow depended on his action removing Gary's body from the van and putting it near the boat ramp.
In the days after the assault, Gary developed bedsores - he could not get out of bed.
Susan was given a suspended sentence - Colin Hanslow was released with a good behaviour bond. Simpson was sentenced to twelve months penal servitude with a minimum term of eight months, but had already served two years and twenty six days prior to his release on bail.
There are no images of Gary online and no details of his life or family.
http://www.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/cases/nsw/NSWSC/1999/738.html?context=1;query=intellectual%20disability%20manslaughter%20%20%20;mask_path=au/cases/nsw/NSWSC
Gary was 35, single and had cerebral palsy. He had a mobility impairment and was intellectually disabled. The pathologist said that death was caused by head, chest and abdominal injury, compression of the neck and probably drowning.
Colin David Simpson was sentenced to twelve months for maliciously inflicting grievious bodily harm on Gary - Colin George Hanslow was charged with being an accessory after the fact. Susan Hall pleaded guilty to Gary's manslaughter.
Susan and Colin Simpson, who also had an intellectual disability, rented a caravan at the Lansvale Caravan Park. Gary came to stay with them and gave Susan his bank card - she bought food and other items for him. On or around the 19th August, Colin Simpson inflicted a severe beating on Gary. The Crown's case against Susan Hall was that she should have obtained medical advice for him and failed to do so - the case against Colin Hanslow depended on his action removing Gary's body from the van and putting it near the boat ramp.
In the days after the assault, Gary developed bedsores - he could not get out of bed.
Susan was given a suspended sentence - Colin Hanslow was released with a good behaviour bond. Simpson was sentenced to twelve months penal servitude with a minimum term of eight months, but had already served two years and twenty six days prior to his release on bail.
There are no images of Gary online and no details of his life or family.
http://www.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/cases/nsw/NSWSC/1999/738.html?context=1;query=intellectual%20disability%20manslaughter%20%20%20;mask_path=au/cases/nsw/NSWSC
1995
Ray Davies
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26 year old Ray Davies was an intellectually disabled disability pensioner who was a victim of the Snowtown murderers, John Bunting, Robert Wagner, James Vlassakis, and Mark Haydon. Ray was tortured and murdered by these serial killers in a hate crime.
He lived in a caravan in the backyard of Suzanne Allen's house and had a relationship in about 1993. That ended after Allen's grandsons complained that he had made sexual advances to them. Allen and Annette Cannon, her daughter, reported the matter to the police. They did not see Ray Davies again. Later, Cannon saw Bunting, Wagner and Allen cleaning out the caravan. They later removed it, cleaned it and sold it. Davies was murdered by Bunting and Wagner in December he was last seen alive on Boxing Day, 1995. Bunting continued to claim Davies’ welfare payments. Ray Davies was garroted with rope and a lever after he was put into a bath. Before he died, they attacked him with clubs and beat his genitals. They also crushed one of his toes with a pair of pliers. He was strangled by Wagner and Elizabeth Harvey, Vlassakis's mother, who died of cancer in 2001. Bunting was present. Davies’ body was later recovered by police buried in the backyard at the former home of Bunting in Waterloo Corner Road, Salisbury North. He was never reported missing. |
1993
Joan Vollmer
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Joan was murdered by her husband and three others, who decided she was possessed after she had an episode of psychosis - Joan was schizophrenic. Ralph Vollmer and three others, Leanne Reichenbach, David Klinger and Matthew Nuske, tied her to her bed, refused her food and water and tortured her.
On one occasion she was tied to a chair, but because of her violent resistance it was deemed necessary by Vollmer to tie her feet to boards with the use of stockings. That was not wholly successful until Vollmer nailed the boards together. From the court transcript - 'At about 4.00pm Reichenbach and Klingner decided that the demons needed to be' forcibly removed from the deceased's body'. Reichenbach began to squeeze and massage the deceased's abdomen, moving up across the chest to the throat and finally holding her tongue down. Reichenbach assisted in immobilising the deceased by having the deceased's right leg pinned between his own legs. Vollmer pinned the deceased's left leg between his legs, while Klingner held the deceased's head from the rear and forced her eyes open. They believed that it was necessary for the mouth of the deceased to be forced open so as to permit the exit of the demons. Accordingly, Klingner inserted fingers in her mouth and forced it open. It was during this ministration that the deceased suffered cardiac arrest and died.' Vollmer was given a suspended sentence, as was one of the trio. The other two were given a three and four month sentence. |
http://www.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/sinodisp/au/cases/vic/VicRp/1996/9.html
The people who own it don’t want to live there House abandoned after bizarre exorcism
The Exorcism of Joan Vollmer
A Terrible Exorcism
AUSTRALIAN WOMAN DIES AFTER 4-DAY EXORCISM
Exorcism Goes Wrong in Victoria
The people who own it don’t want to live there House abandoned after bizarre exorcism
The Exorcism of Joan Vollmer
A Terrible Exorcism
AUSTRALIAN WOMAN DIES AFTER 4-DAY EXORCISM
Exorcism Goes Wrong in Victoria
1992
Clinton Trezise
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Clinton Trezise was murdered in 1992 by the Snowtown murderers. His body was found buried in a shallow grave at Lower Light, South Australia, on 16 August, 1994.
A post mortem examination revealed fractures of the skull that were consistent with having been caused by blows from a blunt instrument. John Bunting, one of the lead murderers, said that Clinton 'didn't deserve to live'. He, Haydon and Raelene Brown talked about him being gay, but not 'whether he was into kids as well' (the group professed a hatred of paedophiles and cited it as a reason to murder their victims). Clinton and Barry Lane, another victim, had been sexual partners. At the time Clinton disappeared, Wagner (one of the murderers) and Lane were living together in a sexual relationship. Bunting referred to Clinton as 'Happy Pants' and told the Crown's witness, Vlassakis, that Clinton was a paedophile. A number of the Snowtown killers either had direct knowledge or were directly involved in Clinton's murder. |
