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Key points:
- The High Court has allowed Peter Dansie a chance to overturn his murder conviction
- Helen Dansie drowned in an Adelaide pond in 2017
- The appeal will be reheard in SA Supreme Court
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STORY: "Peter Dansie allowed to appeal against his conviction for murdering his wife who drowned in an Adelaide pond, by court reporter Claire Campbell, published by ABC News on August 10, 2022.
GIST: "Australia's highest court has allowed a man found guilty of murdering his wife by pushing her wheelchair into a pond to appeal against his conviction.
Peter Rex Dansie, 73, was sentenced to life in prison for killing his wife, Helen Dansie, in Adelaide's southern parklands.
Mrs Dansie drowned in a pond in Veale Gardens in April 2017.
Dansie lost a bid to appeal his conviction in South Australia's Court of Criminal Appeal two years ago. Two judges dismissed Dansie's application to appeal, but Justice Kevin Nicholson said he would have quashed the conviction as the evidence did not rule out the possibility that Mrs Dansie might have accidentally drowned.
"It would be dangerous in all the circumstances to allow the verdict of guilty of murder to stand," Justice Nicholson said.
The High Court then granted Dansie's application for special leave to appeal the majority decision of South Australia's appeal court.
The High Court unanimously found South Australia's Court of Criminal Appeal misapplied the law and has allowed Dansie to appeal against his conviction.
The matter will be remitted to the Court of Criminal Appeal for rehearing.
In allowing the appeal, the High Court said the Supreme Court needed "more than mere satisfaction" to prove guilt beyond reasonable doubt.
"The appellant argues that the majority (of the Court of Criminal Appeal) misinterpreted and misapplied the approach required to be taken," the judgement said.
"The appellant's argument is well founded.
"The appeal must be allowed.
"What each member of the Court of Criminal Appeal needed to do in order to apply the test … was to ask whether he was independently satisfied as a result of his own assessment of the whole of the evidence adduced at the trial that the only rational inference available on that evidence was that the appellant deliberately pushed the wheelchair into the pond with intent to drown his wife.”
Mrs Dansie's son Grant said he was "massively disappointed" the appeal had been granted.
"It's like a never-ending story," he said.
Dansie previously lost appeal
When Dansie was sentenced to a non-parole period of 25 years two years ago, Justice David Lovell said Mrs Dansie's murder was the "ultimate act of domestic violence" and described it as an "evil and despicable act".
"This was a chilling, planned murder of a person whose only mistake was to trust you," he said.
During the trial, prosecutors alleged Dansie murdered his wife because he regarded her as a cost burden.
Mrs Dansie, a former microbiologist, suffered a stroke in the 1990s that left her with long-term disabilities.
The court at the time heard she was on an indexed pension for life, a large portion of which Mr Dansie was entitled to as her full-time carer. (Is c);
Justice Lovell established a "dual motive" for the murder — a deterioration in Dansie's feelings for his wife and an interest in pursuing a sexual relationship with another woman overseas.”
The entire story can be read at:
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-08-10/peter-dansie-allowed-to-appeal/101317890
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Read what Peter Dansie told police on the day his wife died. (Partial excerpt. Read entire story ABC News, Reporter Meagan Dillon) at link below:
"About an hour into his interview with police, Mr Dansie spoke about what he did with his wife that day, including pushing her wheelchair onto a flat rock next to a Veale Gardens pond to watch the sunset.
"I thought that was a nice, stable platform to put her on," he said.
The Veale Gardens pond where Helen Dansie drowned in April 2017.(ABC News: Loukas Founten)
"When we went to leave, I couldn't get the wheelchair to move, I'm still trying to push it because I thought it was wedged up against a rock or something so I said, 'take your brakes off'.
"She took the brakes off and the bloody wheelchair disappeared into the pond.
"I was really surprised.
"I was pushing it, I thought it was propped up against a piece of rock or something, so I was probably pushing it fairly hard and all of a sudden, she's taken the brakes off.
"I don't know why it didn't go straight ahead and into the pond — I guess she took one brake off before the other.
"It was just there and then not there."
'I wanted to get her out of the water'
He said he put his phone, keys and glasses next to a tree before getting into the pond and dragging her to the edge — but he couldn't remember if she was face down in the water or not.
"It all sounds very cold and clinical — but I'm just used to, I guess, as I said before I was a commercial pilot and I'm just used to making decisions," he said.
When asked what he struggled with when trying to save her, Mr Dansie said the "cold and the depth".
He said he couldn't remember if he tried to roll her onto her back.
"I didn't think of it — she was in the water, I wanted to get her out of the water."
In the triple zero call admitted into evidence at trial, it took him 30 seconds to tell the operator that his wife was in the water and he was asked almost a dozen times if he could roll, push or prop her up so her mouth was out of the water.
Mr Dansie said he was unable to do so and told the operator he had bad knees and diabetes.
By 12:48am on April 17, 2017, police had driven Mr Dansie back to his home for a search and at 2:56am, they arrived at the alleged crime scene where they stayed for more than an hour.
At his trial, prosecutors accused Mr Dansie of deliberately killing his wife because she had become a "cost burden he was no longer prepared to tolerate".
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-08-10/peter-dansie-allowed-to-appeal/101317890
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Link to High Court decision:
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PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I am monitoring this case/issue. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments. The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at: http://www.thestar.com/topic/charlessmith. Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at: http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com. Harold Levy: Publisher: The Charles Smith Blog;
