Tanya Hinrichsen wins appeal against conviction for love triangle murder of her husband Steven Hinrichsen

A southern suburbs woman who had been found guilty of the stabbing murder of her husband amid a “tense” love triangle has won a retrial on appeal as a court quashed her conviction.

A woman who was found guilty of the stabbing murder of her husband amid a love triangle has won a retrial on appeal as a court quashed her conviction.

Tanya Hinrichsen, 45, had been found guilty by a jury – alongside her lover Gavin Skinner – of murdering Steven Hinrichsen, 63, at their Morphett Vale, home on December 15, 2018.

They were jailed for life with non-parole periods of 22 and 24 years respectively.

A second man, Robert Thrupp, was found guilty of manslaughter.

During the 2021 trial of the trio, the jury was told Ms Hinrichsen was not present when her husband, who used a wheelchair to move around, was bashed and stabbed to death.

The jury had been told Ms Hinrichsen was in a “tense triangular relationship” and “desperately” wanted to be in a relationship with Skinner.

The court had heard Skinner and Thrupp had gone to the couple’s home and attacked Mr Hinrichsen, while Ms Hinrichsen was absent. She returned home to discover her husband’s body and called emergency services.

Steven Hinrichsen. Picture: Facebook

Tanya Hinrichsen. Picture: Facebook

They jury was also told she also sent texts of her husband’s contorted body to Skinner, along with the words “Steve’s dead”.

Ms Hinrichsen had challenged her conviction on the basis the trial judge, Justice Sophie David, had “erred” in her summing up to the jury on different topics, including a failure to give a direction about the prosecutor’s submission about what Ms Hinrichsen had said to police about her house keys.

Prosecutors had said Ms Hinrichsen’s explanation about the keys – implying that they had been taken because they were not in their usual place – was a “late desperate conniving attempt to distance herself” from involvement.

On Thursday, the Court of Appeal handed down a majority judgment to set aside her conviction and allow a retrial.

Justices David Lovell and Sam Doyle found the Justice David, had erred in her directions to the jury and allowed Ms Hinrichsen’s appeal on four grounds.

They said the prosecution case against Ms Hinrichsen was “factually and legally different” from the case against her co-accused because she was not present. They said there was a “failure to direct in relation to the prosecution submission” about the house keys which had suggested “a consciousness of guilt”.

They also said they were “prevented” from concluding that “that the evidence properly admitted against Hinrichsen at trial established her guilt beyond reasonable doubt”.

In a dissenting ruling, Court of Appeal President Mark Livesey, said the appeal should have been dismissed.

Ms Hinrichsen will return to court on a date to be set.