Sydney nurse who shot dead and decapitated former lover granted parole
A SYDNEY nurse convicted of shooting and decapitating her former lover has been granted parole, nearly two decades after she was jailed. Christopher Dorrian’s head was found in a bag in the Cooks River but his body was never found.
NSW
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A SYDNEY nurse convicted of shooting and decapitating her former lover has been granted parole, nearly two decades after she was jailed.
NSW’s State Parole Authority on Thursday said Keng Hwee (Kathy) Yeo will be released no later than July 13.
The 47-year-old was sentenced in 2000 to a maximum 24 years in prison with an 18-year non-parole period, which expires on July 6.
Howard Brown, a victims’ advocate who represented Mr Dorrian’s son James in yesterday’s hearing, told the Australian the decision as undermining the administration of justice.
“All we were able to bury was a head,” Mr Brown said.
“For the rest of his life, James has an incomplete body. How do you go and pay reverence to a loved one when you don’t have all of them?
“We have now lost any possibility or prospect of ever discovering where Christopher’s body is.”
Yeo had been found guilty of murdering Christopher Mark Dorrian, 31, who was shot three times in the head and dismembered after he ended his relationship with her.
She had been a nurse at the drug and alcohol unit of Rozelle Hospital in Sydney’s inner west where he was a patient.
While there was no direct evidence of what happened, the sentencing judge was satisfied Yeo shot and killed Mr Dorrian, before severing his head and disposing of his body parts in June 1997.
His head was discovered in a bag beside the Cooks River at Marrickville but no other remains have ever been found.
Yeo’s parole was granted on a number of conditions, including that she undergo psychological assessment and counselling if directed, not possess or use any guns or bullets, not communicate or contact the victims’ family or associate with any co-offenders.
A State Parole Authority spokeswoman said Yeo has “undertaken all appropriate programs”.
“When granting parole, the authority took into account all material before it, including reports from Community Corrections and the Serious Offender’s Review Council,” she said in a statement.
But the NSW government is considering challenging the decision. Corrections Minister David Elliott has sought advice from the Crown solicitor’s office about avenues of appeal through the Supreme Court.
“The Commissioner of Corrective Services opposed parole on the basis the offender needed more time & exposure to the external leave program,” he tweeted on Thursday.