Woman who murdered Launceston mother with pillow fails to prove miscarriage of justice

A woman who smothered her mother in her South Launceston home before draining her bank account has failed to have her murder conviction overturned. Find out when she’ll be eligible for parole.

A more recent Veronica Corstorphine while volunteering with the Labor party. Picture: Supplied

A woman who smothered her mother in her South Launceston home before draining her bank account has failed to have her murder conviction overturned.

Natalie Maher, 50, was jailed in 2021 for a maximum of 23 years for murdering 71-year-old Veronica Corstorphine in October 2019.

Maher said she suffered a miscarriage of justice, appealing on the basis she was harangued in an “oppressive” police interview after she fled back to Western Australia.

She said that interview, along with the expert evidence of forensic pathologist Donald Ritchie, who ruled out natural causes or suicide, should have been excluded from the trial.

In a hearing last October, Maher’s barrister Kim Baumeler highlighted elements of the interview she said were oppressive, including an instance in which the detective “threatens” to show her an image of her mother’s decomposed body.

Veronica Corstorphine. Picture: Davey Rintala.

Ms Baumeler said Maher’s making of admissions were influenced by the detective making comments like “you’ve lied today”, “I think something’s happened that’s made you snap” and “did your mother struggle as you smothered her?”

The lawyer said Maher formed an incorrect belief that her participation in the interview was mandatory.

But on Tuesday, the Court of Criminal Appeal dismissed Maher’s appeal on both grounds.

In their published judgment, Justices Stephen Estcourt, Michael Brett and Gregory Geason said there was no evidence Maher was “oppressed or overborne” during the police interview or formed an incorrect belief about her participation.

“ … while the conduct of the interview was persistent and robust, it did not amount to oppression to the extent that the appellant’s right to silence was eroded,” Justice Estcourt said.

He noted Maher was also “sufficiently relaxed” to laugh regularly during the interview, and refer to the detective as “darl” or “darling”.

Justice Estcourt said a section of the interview with “loud, overbearing and improper questioning” by the detective had already been excluded from the trial, and contained no admissions in any event.

Justice Estcourt dismissed an argument that Dr Ritchie’s opinion about the cause of Ms Corstorphine’s death should be excluded.

He said he was well-qualified to comment that she’d died with her hands next to her head, as if pushing the pillow from her face, and that the circumstances were “highly suggestive of a homicidal manner of death”.

With a non-parole period of 13 years, Maher could be free again in 2032.

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Originally published as Woman who murdered Launceston mother with pillow fails to prove miscarriage of justice