Wendie-Sue Dent given final chance at claiming victim’s $300,000 estate

A decade-long legal nightmare is set to continue for the family of an Adelaide murder victim.

Black widow Wendie-Sue Dent has been given one final chance to claim her victim’s remains and his $300,000 estate – and wants taxpayer funding to challenge her murder conviction a third time.

On Friday, David Lawrence’s still-grieving family asked the Supreme Court to end their decade-long legal nightmare by striking out Dent’s lawsuit against them.

They argued SA law specifically prohibited murderers from benefiting from their victims’ deaths, making her lawsuit pointless – and saying her ban on them holding a funeral also served no purpose.

Dent, who was supposed to appear by video link after her previous lawyers stepped down from the case, was instead represented by one of the solicitors from her criminal trial.

Wendie-Sue Dent during one of her trials. Picture: Sam Wundke

Joseph Henderson, for Dent, asked for time to arrange new civil lawyers for her so she could decide whether she still sought to prove she was Mr Lawrence’s sole beneficiary.

Asked Dent’s attitude toward her conviction, Mr Henderson said there had been “developments” in that area as well.

“No application for special leave to appeal, to the High Court, has been made but the Legal Services Commission has been contacted in relation to funding such an application,” he said.

“That’s in train.”

Dent, 66, of Dapto in NSW, murdered Mr Lawrence, 63, in December 2015 using her medication – including 20, 100mg tablets of morphine.

Her crime sparked almost 10 years of courtroom hearings, including multiple trials and appeals, before her conviction and 25-year sentence were finalised.

Dent’s motivation was to claim Mr Lawrence’s $300,000 estate for herself, going to far as to forge not only a will but his signature on the back of artwork “bequeathed” to her.

She also sued his family, seeking to claim possession of his ashes, bar them from holding a funeral and have them pay her $100,000 compensation for “treating her poorly”.

David Lawrence. Source: SA Police

Dent sued Mr Lawrence’s family after murdering him, preventing them from holding a funeral. Picture: Facebook

On Friday, Simon Ower KC, for the Lawrence family, said there was no justification for giving Dent further time.

“State law about forfeiture precludes her from perusing (the forged) will, acting as its executor or being its beneficiary,” he said.

“Dent has had many, many months to deal with this matter … her previous counsel did not communicate with us for months and months.

“It’s only upon them retiring from the matter that we find ourselves here today.”

Judge Graham Dart said he appreciated the Lawrence family’s position, but felt Dent should have time to speak with and instruct counsel.

He asked Mr Henderson if the funeral ban could be waived “by agreement” with Dent.

“It’s a whole range of relatively unusual orders, in reality, that I don’t see any need to remain in place,” he said.

Mr Henderson, however, said he was “not instructed” to consent to any changes to the injunctions.

Judge Dart adjourned the hearing until next month, but said Dent had to “make a decision”, by then, to either fight the case or give up.