Man who aided wife's death appeals conviction
A man who convinced his wife to kill herself and then helped her to do it for a $1.4 million life insurance payout says he was improperly convicted.
Graham Robert Morant's lawyer says the judge gave incorrect instructions to a jury during his 2018 trial.
Graham Morant is seen leaving the Supreme Court in Brisbane during his trial.Credit:AAP/Darren England.
Emails between his wife Jennifer Morant and a euthanasia campaigner about two months before she died should also have been considered by the jury, the lawyer said.
But crown prosecutor Dzenita Balic told the Queensland Court of Appeal on Monday that Morant persuaded his wife to end her life in November 2014.
Morant drove his wife to a hardware store to collect equipment she would need to end her life. He helped her unpack it and set it up.
The next day, she did what he told her to do at their Gold Coast hinterland home.
He was painted at his trial as money-hungry and desperate to follow through on plans to build a religious commune.
Morant was the sole beneficiary of his wife's life insurance policies, totalling $1.4 million.
In jailing Morant, Supreme Court Justice Peter Davis said Mrs Morant was a vulnerable person with health issues and depression.
Morant was sentenced to 10 years' jail.
The appeal court decision has been reserved.
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AAP