Sixty-nine-year-old Australian Graham Morant was found guilty and sentenced to ten years in prison on 2 November for persuading his wife to commit suicide. This case has set a precedent in Australia.
His wife, Jennifer Morant, had been suffering from chronic back pain and depression. In 2014, she was found dead in her car by police. A note found next to her stated that she did not want to be resuscitated.
A court in Queensland learned that Morant had helped his wife to buy items from a hardware store to help her commit suicide and in fact encouraged her to do so. Graham Morant was the sole beneficiary of his wife’s life insurance policy set to pay out 1.4 million Australian dollars (€890,000) on her death. The man planned to build a religious community with the money and had told his wife that God did not look upon suicide as a sin.
Justice Peter Davis told Morant: “You took advantage of her vulnerability as a sick and depressed woman”.
USA Today, Rod Mcguirk (02/11/2018)