ON THIS DAY - June 22, 1983 MALDON Woman Jailed for Manslaughter A woman convicted of the manslaughter of her policeman husband was sentenced yesterday by a Criminal Court judge to five years jail. Mr Justice Phillips said Mrs Gayle Barbara Forsythe, 34, had been an accessory to the killing of her husband, Senior Constable Lindsay Forsythe, by sending him to meet his death. Mrs Forsythe must have known that her lover, Senior Constable Leigh Michael Lawson, was waiting to kill her husband when she sent him to a deserted farm house at Maldon, near Bendigo, on June 22, 1983. Earlier this year Senior Constable Lawson, 27, of Hobart Street, Bentleigh, was sentenced to a mandatory life sentence after a jury found him guilty of the murder of Senior Constable Forsythe. The same jury found Mrs Gayle Forsythe, of Willow Grove, Wendouree, not guilty of the murder of her husband, but guilty of the lesser charge of manslaughter. Mr Justice Phillips said that at their joint trial, Senior Constable Lawson appeared to put most, if not all, the blame of the Maldon policemans death on Mrs Forsythe. For her part, Mrs Forsythe had denied planning to kill her husband. The truth of the matter lies buried somewhere between the two versions, he said. But where it lies for me is just a matter of speculation. The judge said that on the night of June 12 Senior Constable Lawson had travelled to Maldon planning to kill Senior Constable Forsythe, but on the precipice of murder he drew back from the brink. Even though he accepted that Mrs Forsythe had nothing to do with this incident, she must have known about it on the night before her husbands death. On June 22, she had lured her husband to where Senior Constable Lawson was waiting for him with another false call. I have no doubt the jury took this into account when deciding to convict you, he said. It is true your finger did not pull the trigger but your actions were a significant part in the actions that led to your husbands death. In deciding on the length of the sentence, Mr Justice Phillips said he had taken into account Mrs Forsytes age, her previous good behaviour, her two children, and other favourable evidence that had been put before him, including a pre-sentence psychiatric report. He ordered that she serve a minimum of three years jail before be coming eligible for parole.
Posted on: Sun, 22 Jun 2014 00:15:19 +0000
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