Grant Dansie fights father and convicted murderer Peter Rex Dansie in court to safeguard mother’s legacy
The day before Peter Dansie was sentenced to at least 25 years in jail for drowning his wife, it was revealed her son Grant has started his own court fight to stop her killer taking her financial legacy too.
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He was unable to protect his mother, Helen, from his greedy, murderous father – now Grant Dansie has taken court action to safeguard her legacy.
The Advertiser can reveal Peter Rex Dansie, who will be sentenced tomorrow, is being sued by his son in the Supreme Court for control of his mother’s assets.
At stake are two freehold rural properties in the state’s South East, the family home at Waterfall Gully as well as treasured personal possessions.
If successful, Dansie – who has bragged of being “comfortably well-off” and “asset rich” – would at last be cut off from the endowment that obsessed him, and drove him to kill.
But, should Dansie win his appeal against his conviction, the two men’s decades-long battle over Helen and her wellbeing will only intensify.
Dansie, 71, murdered Helen by pushing her – and the wheelchair in which she was seated – into a Veale Gardens pond in 2017.
He has appealed against that conviction and the rejection of his continued claim the incident was an accident and that he did not plan to murder her.
Grant Dansie gave evidence for the prosecution at his father’s trial, supporting its claim Dansie murdered Helen because she had become a financial “burden” to him.
He revealed that, in the days after the murder, he donned a police recording device while questioning his father about the incident.
During the trial, it emerged that Dansie had long feuded with Grant over Helen’s care and wellbeing.
Grant, and Helen’s friends, wanted her to live in a different nursing home where she could engage in conversations, play games and have a pet to stimulate her.
Dansie, however, insisted she remain in the facility of his choice – where she was housed in a dementia ward, despite not suffering from that condition.
The court heard evidence from multiple witnesses that Dansie considered Helen’s finances to be “his money” and was not prepared to spend it to improve her lifestyle.
In his victim impact statement, Grant said the state’s mechanisms for caring for elderly and disabled people had failed Helen.
“My mother did what she could to protect me from Peter Dansie – unfortunately, I was unable to protect her from Peter Dansie,” he told the court.
“We fought for years to ensure she was safe and looked after, and we failed … she fell through the cracks of the system that was meant to protect her.”
It can now be revealed that, following Dansie’s arrest, the Supreme Court gave Grant power to “collect and protect” his mother’s estate pending the outcome of the trial.
On December 20 – coincidentally, the day of his father’s conviction – Grant’s lawyers filed suit seeking to force Dansie to hand over all of Helen’s personal and financial papers.
On Wednesday, Graham Edmonds-Wilson QC, for Grant, said that request had yet to be fulfilled.
“We have been provided with a copy of what is believed to be a 1977 will of the deceased,” he said.
He said state law meant Dansie’s share of all jointly-held property was forfeit due to his conviction, but added the appeal meant such matters could not yet be decided.
John White, for Dansie, said his client was “having difficulty piecing together historical materials” due to his incarceration.
“I suspect it will be difficult, though not impossible, for us to file comprehensive (defence papers), but we will comply and co-operate with all court orders,” he said.
Judge Katrina Bochner ordered the parties file all necessary documents within six weeks and adjourned the case until May.
Dansie’s appeal will be heard that month, while his sentence will be handed down at 9.30am on Thursday.