Louise Spiteri-Ahern’s appeal dismissed for organising ex-boyfriend’s Sydney ‘execution’

A Sydney woman who is spending 18 years in prison for organising her ex-boyfriend’s death has lost her last-ditch appeal against her sentence.

A Sydney woman jailed for organising the “contract killing” of her ex-lover has had her appeal against her 18-year prison sentence quashed after she argued the man who pulled the trigger may have had his own motive.

Louise-Catherine Spiteri-Ahern was sentenced to a maximum of 30 years for organising what a Supreme Court judge called an “execution-style” murder of Raymond Pasnin in Pendle Hill in 2013.

Mr Pasnin was shot through the left arm, with a bullet entering his body and piercing the aorta, outside his mother’s flat on October 30, 2013, by drug dealer Daniel Haile.

Justice Stephen Rothman found Spiteri-Ahern, then 23, paid at least $4000 for the fatal assault as revenge against ex-boyfriend Mr Pasnin but stopped short of giving a definite reason for her doing so.

Louise-Catherine Spiteri-Ahern was sentenced to a maximum of 30 years for organising the murder of Raymond Pasnin in Pendle Hill in 2013. Picture: AAP Image/Ben Rushton

The court was told at trial in 2017 that Spiteri-Ahern had once accused Mr Pasnin of stabbing her and had been left emotionally scarred at her treatment by him throughout their relationship.

She was accused of telling Haile where Mr Pasnin, 27, would be on the night he was murdered and sentenced to at least 18 years in prison after being found guilty of murder at the judge-alone trial.

Spiteri-Ahern launched an appeal in the Court of Criminal Appeal in November against both her conviction and sentence.

The court was told that Mr Pasnin and Haile knew each other before the killing, with Spiteri-Ahern’s barrister Madeleine Avenell SC arguing that Justice Rothman in sentencing said Haile “may have had his own motives”.

Ms Avenell argued the verdict was unreasonable and could not be supported, Justice Rothman’s reasons for finding Spiteri-Ahern guilty were inadequate and the sentence was excessive.

The court was told that Mr Pasnin’s fiancee, Lyndal Archbold, testified at trial that she heard Haile mumble something before shooting her partner dead.

Ms Archbold was present when Ms Pasnin was callously gunned down in front of her eyes that same night.

Spiteri-Ahern was just 23 when she organised for her ex-boyfriend’s death. Picture: AAP Image/Ben Rushton

But the Crown argued her evidence about seeing him earlier was clouded by the “complete senselessness” of what unfolded at the scene of the shooting.

However, Justice Anthony Meagher, Justice Robert Alan Hulme and Justice Jennifer Davies refused to grant the appeal and dismissed it on Monday.

“It is suggested the evidence of these circumstances left open the possibility that a relationship existed between Mr Pasnin and Mr Haile concerning the supply of drugs,” the principal judgment says.

“That is said in turn to have left open the possibility that in shooting Mr Pasnin, Mr Haile was acting for himself rather than at the request of the applicant.”

They found there was “no argument” that Justice Rothman’s reasoning was inadequate.

“There was no denial of procedural fairness in the trial judge proceeding as he did,” the judgment said.

None of the grounds of appeal against Spiteri-Ahern’s conviction were made out, with the court finding Justice Rothman was correct to be satisfied beyond reasonable doubt of her guilt.

“Justice Rothman held that the offence was a very serious one. His Honour assessed it as being above the mid-range of objective seriousness,” the judgment said.

“The sentence is not demonstrated to be plainly unjust or unreasonable.”

Originally published as Louise Spiteri-Ahern’s appeal dismissed for organising ex-boyfriend’s Sydney ‘execution’