Jury finds Tanya Hinrichsen and Gavin Skinner guilty of murdering Morphett Vale grandfather Steven Hinrichsen
A woman and a man have been convicted of the murder of Steven Hinrichsen – the woman’s husband, whom the pair considered an “impediment” to their new relationship.
Police & Courts
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A woman – and her lover – have been found guilty of the brutal stabbing murder of her husband, while a second man also has been convicted of killing the southern suburbs grandfather.
After almost 13 hours of deliberations across two days, a Supreme Court jury found Tanya Hinrichsen, 43, and Gavin Scott Skinner, 46, guilty of murdering Steven Hinrichsen at Morphett Vale on December 15, 2018.
Skinner’s friend Robert John Thrupp, 47, was found guilty of manslaughter.
The men barely reacted as the verdicts were read aloud, while Hinrichsen closed her eyes before tilting her head back and looking up.
Outside court, Mr Hinrichsen’s sister, Sandra McIntyre, said she was “really happy” with the verdicts.
“There’s justice for my brother,” she said.
“He was a very easy, laid back sort of person. Very good-natured.”
Carmen Matteo, prosecuting, had told the jury Mr Hinrichsen was murdered because he was “an inconvenience and an impediment” to his wife’s new relationship with Skinner.
She said the new couple and Mr Hinrichsen were in a “tense triangular relationship”. Ms Matteo said Hinrichsen and Skinner “wanted to be together and desperately so.”
Mr Hinrichsen had been found badly beaten, stabbed and lying face down in a pool of blood.
Ms Matteo said numerous texts sent between Skinner and Hinrichsen, and two assaults Skinner had committed against Mr Hinrichsen in the weeks before the murder, demonstrated their “exasperation and bitterness” toward the older man.
One of those texts, from Skinner, sent a day before Mr Hinrichsen was found dead, said he was “ready to go on a hunting spree”.
Less than a minute later, Hinrichsen had responded to give her “permission”.
Ms Matteo said the trio and another woman had gone to Mr Hinrichsen’s house in the hours before he was murdered to collect some of Hinrichsen’s belongings.
She said the two men were captured on CCTV walking back to Mr Hinrichsen’s house, where she said the murder happened.
At that time, Hinrichsen was sleeping on a couch at a house in Christie Downs but returned to her husband’s home about 9am. She called emergency services, and sent texts of her husband’s contorted body to Skinner saying “Steve’s dead”.
None of the trio called witnesses but in defence closing submissions, counsel for Hinrichsen said she could not have been a part of any plan to murder her husband because she was asleep at the time.
Lawyers for the two men also urged the jury to find their clients not guilty, each suggesting there may have been two separate attacks on Mr Hinrichsen.
Bill Boucaut, for Skinner, told the jury it was possible the second attack was at the hands of Hinrichsen when she returned to the home.
Chris Weir, for Thrupp, had told the jury it was instead possible that the first attack happened when the trio had gone to collect Hinrichsen’s belongings.
He said Thrupp was outside during most of that visit and Skinner and Hinrichsen were the last to leave the house.
The trio will return to court next month.