Colin Stratton: Castlemaine man who was shot by son “fell through the cracks” of euthanasia laws

A cancer-stricken Castlemaine father wanted to die on his own terms, but “fell through the cracks” of Victoria’s assisted dying laws, so his son pulled the trigger. This is the tragic story.

Those closest to Colin Stratton are all clear about one thing: once he’d had made his mind up about something, there was no point trying to talk him out of it.

Since his beloved wife Sue died in 2017, he had been “immovable” and “resolute” that he would die on his own terms, in the back garden of the family home at Castlemaine.

On a Tuesday morning in May, he decided “today is my day”.

At 80, everything hurt; he had a crook heart, cancer just about everywhere, and medical treatment had robbed him of the ability to taste a glass of wine.

He didn’t care much to be around for his upcoming birthday.

“My whole body’s given up,” he’d said on his final visit to his doctor, as he asked to be given something that would kill him.

Colin Stratton Picture: Supplied

Glenn Stratton pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting his father’s suicide.

The answer was a firm no. There would be no “peaceful pill” with a cuppa in the back garden that day.

Victoria’s deliberately restrictive voluntary assisted dying scheme involved weeks of red tape, and his terminal illness wasn’t “late stage” enough for him to qualify.

According to Colin’s daughter, Donna, “He had made up his mind. He did not want to go on. Dad had chosen the date and the time”.

But the immovable old man had met the unstoppable force of bureaucracy.

In 1981, Colin got his son, Glenn, 54, a pump action .22 for his fourteenth birthday, which he used to shoot at rabbits, before leaving it to gather dust in the shed when he moved away.

With no “peaceful pill” Colin asked Glenn to use the gun on him.

His death was to be a violent one.

The Stratton family home in Castlemaine, where Colin Stratton died.

“I’m in pain, I need your help,” he said.

Glenn tried to stop him, but Colin, resolute as always, said he’d try anyway, even at the risk of “making a mess of it”.

Alone in the back garden, Glenn told his father he loved him.

“Likewise,” Colin said, each man closed their eyes and Glenn pulled the trigger.

The events of that day saw Glenn charged with murder and locked up on remand for more than a month, until prosecutors downgraded the charge to aiding and abetting suicide. Prominent euthanasia advocate Dr Phillip Nitschke told the Herald Sun there were people like Colin “falling through the cracks everywhere” by Victoria’s assisted dying scheme, which Premier Daniel Andrews said in 2017 was the “safest scheme in the world”, but which Dr Nitschke said was unnecessarily restrictive.

Dr Philip Nitschke has supported voluntary euthanasia since the 1990s. Picture: Jerad Williams

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews looks on as Health Minister Jill Hennessy speaks during a press conference after the Voluntary Assisted Dying Bill 2017 passed in the Victorian Legislative Council in 2017. (AAP Image/David Crosling)

“It’s absolutely dreadful it came to this,” Dr Nitschke said.

Like many terminally ill people, Colin turned to the black market to buy euthanasia drugs, but was the target of an online scam, which Dr Nitschke said was increasingly common, amid a worldwide shortage of the drug.

The latest government figures show 331 Victorians have died under the state’s voluntary assisted dying scheme, out of more than 800 who doctors have assessed for eligibility.

Dozens have died waiting for their applications to the scheme to be processed.

In a statement to the Victorian Supreme Court last week, Glenn’s brother Searle said he was still struggling to cope with his father’s death.

“My father … was the benchmark for which I judge all men,” he said.

“He was everything I envisioned a real man to be.

“I can’t help but feel like I’ve been cheated.

“The greatest man I’ve ever known has been taken from me.

“The few things that console me, that ease the pain inside, is knowing my father is no longer in pain, that he and my mother are now together once more, and that my new hero is now my brother, for sacrificing his own freedom in the greatest act of love one can commit.”

The Bendigo Law Courts Picture: Zizi Averill

Glenn’s court case made barely a ripple in the news until he faced the Supreme Court last week, when the full extent of the family’s ordeal was aired publicly for the first time.

On Thursday, Justice Elizabeth Hollingworth handed Glenn a good behaviour order, and said he was deserving of “mercy”, because he had acted “from love … and a desire to end (Colin’s) suffering”.

Intensely private and now able to grieve their father’s death without the legal system lingering over them, the Strattons have made it clear their mind is made up on one thing, and, just like Colin, there’s no point trying to talk them out of it.

As Colin’s grandson Daniel Devereaux told the Supreme Court: “the health system failed (Colin) and would not let him end things on his own terms”.