Colin Stratton: Children of father shot by their brother in mercy killing speak out

The devastated children of a terminally ill Castlemaine grandfather, shot and killed by his son, say the system failed them all.

The heartbroken children of a terminally ill Castlemaine man — shot by his son in a mercy killing — say their brother is a hero for acting on his father’s orders.

Glenn Stratton was initially charged with murder after police arrested him at the home he lived in with his father Colin, 80.

It was May 24 last year when Glenn pulled the trigger after his dad who had been refused a “suicide pill” was determined to make that day his last, “with or without” his son’s help.

Glenn’s sister Donna told The Australian the moment she found her father.

“Dad was sitting in his favourite chair with his fluoro orange beanie on and he looked at peace,” she said.

“His head was just leaning ­forward, he looked so calm. I just hugged him and he was still warm and he still smelt like dad. I then hugged Glenn and the police came.”

Glenn was charged that same day and locked up on remand for more than a month until prosecutors downgraded the charge to aiding and abetting suicide.

The months that followed were not easy for the 53-year-old carpenter and father of five who wrote of his struggle inside a Melbourne jail cell.

Deep in my heart where my family reside

Lies also a place where I know I can’t hide

For what’s in my mind just won’t go away

And will always be with me at the start of each day

But life must go on for my children will need

A dad who will be there once he is freed…

Today Glenn suffers from severe PTSD, and his siblings, Donna and Searle, said the system “let all of us down”.

Siblings Searle and Donna Stratton in Bendigo. Picture: Julian Kingma

Glenn Stratton was sentenced to a good behaviour bond in December last year over the mercy killing of his father.

“Glenn is my hero. We never want any other family to go through a day like that,” Searle said.

Their father Colin and mother Suzanne, the love of Colin’s life who died from a brain haemorrhage in 2015, had joined the Dying with Dignity group before Colin was diagnosed with terminal cancer.

Colin had first thought about euthanasia in 2007 when his wife suffered her first stroke. Glenn returned to live with his when she died from a brain haemorrhage in 2015.

Colin was diagnosed with an aggressive form of bowel cancer in 2018 before learning the cancer had spread throughout his body by September 2019 when he was given a terminal diagnosis.

He spent $70,000 fighting the disease which, according to his doctor, produced positive results and stabilised his cancer.

But that meant his death was not considered “imminent” — within six months, according to Victoria’s Voluntary Assisted Dying Law — meaning he did not qualify for the so-called “suicide pill”.

Supplied Editorial Colin Stratton pic

Because Colin was so determined to choose his own timing, he and his son Searle were scammed online trying to source the fatal medication.

In the lead up to his death, Colin suffered from osteoarthritis and Meniere’s disease, which affects balance and hearing. He also spent 10 days in hospital because of excess fluid in his legs caused by creeping heart failure.

“Because of his bad knees he couldn’t garden ­anymore, which he also loved,” Donna said.

“He also had to stop woodwork. He couldn’t feel his fingers or his feet and he was about to lose his driver’s licence because of it. Basically, he was in constant pain and he could not do all those things that gave enjoyment to his life.”

On the morning he died, Colin visited his local GP clinic a final time and asked to be given medication which would end his life.

When the doctor refused it, and rang Colin’s family, he said to his son he had decided “today’s my day”.

At home, Colin, unable to turn his rifle on himself, told his son he “needed a favour” and asked Stratton to pull the trigger.

“Don’t make me make a bloody mess of it, I can’t do it myself,” he said.

The father and son said their final goodbyes, and that they loved each other, before Glenn closed his eyes and pulled the trigger to the gun his father bought him for his 14th birthday. It was his third and final attempt.

“We don’t want anyone to go through what we’ve been through,” Donna said.

“What dad went through. What Glenn went through. There has to be a better way.”

In December Justice Elizabeth Hollingworth said Glenn’s case was a case where “justice should be tempered by mercy”, and sentenced him to an adjourned undertaking, with conviction, including an order that he be of good behaviour for the two years.