Peter Rex Dansie stands trial again, following mistrial, for the alleged drowning murder of his wife Helen
The first trial of a man charged with drowning his disabled wife in a city pond ended in a historic mistrial. It’s starting back up again — with taxpayers winning a break.
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The Supreme Court has agreed to resume the Peter Rex Dansie murder case from the point at which it mistrialled — saving South Australian taxpayers $325,000 in legal costs.
On Tuesday, the court agreed to accept 13 days of transcript — alleging Dansie drowned his Helen in a parklands pond — as evidence rather than recall more than a dozen witnesses.
Justice David Lovell’s decision effectively means Dansie’s trial resumes from day 14, meaning prosecutors may finish what remains of their case by the end of this week.
It ensures the $325,00 spent on Dansie’s first trial, aborted after assertions the original trial judge “undermined” the alleged killer’s legal right to silence, has not been wasted.
It also means Mrs Dansie’s son, Grant, does not have to take to the witness box a second time and repeat the evidence he gave against his father.
Dansie, 70, has pleaded not guilty to having murdered Helen, 67, by drowning her in a Veale Gardens pond in April 2017.
She was disabled due to a stroke — Dansie says her wheelchair accidentally went into the pond and she drowned despite his attempts to save her.
Prosecutors say he threw her into the water because she was “a burden he was no longer prepared to tolerate”, then embarked on “a course of deception and subterfuge” to avoid arrest.
THE FIRST DANSIE TRIAL
THE CHARGE: ‘Wife was a burden killer would no longer tolerate’
THE DISCOVERY: Husband ‘seemed calm’ about wife’s drowning
THE SON: ‘Mum was always dirty … I wore a wire to talk to Dad’
THE ACCIDENT: Murder suspect falls, hits head, during trial
THE MISTRIAL: Judge ‘undermined’ right to silence, lawyer says
However, after 13 days and an estimated $325,000 in taxpayer funds, the case ended in mistrial.
Dansie’s lawyers complained the original trial judge, Justice David Peek, had “undermined” their client’s fundamental right to silence.
They asserted he had repeatedly suggested Dansie should take the stand and give evidence in his defence.
Justice Peek denied having done so, but prosecutors did not oppose the mistrial application saying the asserted conduct was “a real problem for this trial on a fundamental issue”.
Dansie was then released on continuing bail to face a second trial.
On Tuesday, Justice Lovell said he had “reflected” on the potential course of the case.
“I’m content with the tender of the witnesses’ evidence from the previous trial, and I do not require it to be read (aloud) in court,” he said.
However, he said four witnesses — workers at the nursing home that cared for Mrs Dansie — would need to give their evidence again before him.
Prosecutor Jim Pearce QC said that would be arranged and that he had four witnesses still remaining before he could close his case.
Greg Mead SC, for Dansie, said he and his client would review the transcript to ensure there were no objections to its content prior to Justice Lovell reading it.
The trial, being heard in the absence of a jury, continues.
