Theresa Dalton found guilty of hiring hitman for second time after retrial

A Gold Coast woman jailed for a second time for plotting her ex-husband’s murder has pleaded her innocence at her sentence saying she would ‘never hurt anybody’.

Theresa Dalton found guilty of ordering hit on husband for second time on retrial. Picture: Dan Peled

A former flight attendant who arranged to have a hitman kill her ex-husband following their “hostile and acrimonious” divorce has been jailed after she was convicted for a second time of orchestrating the failed murder plot.

Theresa Dalton, 69, screamed from the dock “you’ve got it wrong” as a Brisbane Supreme Court jury found her guilty of cajoling her then-boyfriend to offer another man $40,000 to murder her husband Malcolm Stewart in early 2010.

It can now be revealed that Dalton was found guilty of the same allegations in 2019 and was sentenced to six years’ jail, but her conviction was quashed on appeal and a retrial ordered.

Theresa Dalton and her fiancee arrive at the Brisbane Supreme Court during her trial last week. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Dan Peled

At the start of her second trial in the Brisbane Supreme Court last Monday, prosecutor David Finch told the court Dalton became “fixated” on having Mr Stewart killed after their relationship broke down irretrievably in 2007 and a fight ensued over assets.

Mr Finch said the couple had accumulated significant property over their 20-year marriage and all of Dalton’s “problems would be solved” if her ex-husband disappeared.

“Paying someone $40,000 to kill Malcolm Stewart was far less expensive than … dividing up their marital assets,” Mr Finch said.

The court heard Dalton had “pulled the strings” by giving her boyfriend Anthony Werner a photograph of Mr Stewart, his address and a $20,000 downpayment for Werner’s “old acquaintance” Matthew Neels.

Malcolm Stewart leaves the Supreme Court during his ex-wife Theresa Dalton’s first trial in 2019. Picture: AAP Image/Glenn Hunt

Werner met Neels at Burleigh Heads to give him the cash, and promised another $20,000 would follow once Mr Stewart was murdered.

But Neels never carried out the plot and proved to be “more of a thief than a killer” by keeping the money for himself and moving to New South Wales.

Werner was later convicted in NSW over the murder plot and was sentenced to seven years and two months’ jail.

During Dalton’s trial, her barrister Michael Copley QC made submissions that Werner had acted on his own initiative and that the crown case was irreparably divided between the evidence of Neels and Werner.

But after two days of deliberation, the jury agreed with Mr Finch’s submissions that Dalton was the “moving force” behind the plan.

Theresa Dalton pictured in 2019. Picture: AAP Image/Dan Peled

Before Justice John Bond handed down his sentence, Dalton pleaded with him to suspend her sentence telling him she had already spent a year behind bars for a crime she had not committed.

“I’m 69 years of age, apart from the odd speeding ticket … I’ve never been in trouble with the law and have always been a law-abiding citizen,” she said.

“I’m a caring, loving person, I would never take anybody’s life or hurt anybody.”

The court heard that at the time, Dalton was suffering from severe adjustment disorder following the breakdown of her marriage.

Justice Bond did not accept Dalton’s submissions and said she had shown a complete absence of remorse and her actions had been “treacherous and motivated by self-interest”.

Dalton was sentenced to six years’ jail, the same term she received in 2019.

After time served, she will be eligible for parole in October next year.