Rebecca Louise Burden, 47, pleads guilty to attempted suffocation murder of her unwell father
A Brisbane woman will soon discover whether she’ll be locked up for the attempted murder of her dad in a nursing home.
A Brisbane woman says she wishes every day she did not attempt to suffocate her elderly, unwell father in a nursing home, after he asked her to help end his life.
Rebecca Louise Burden, 47, on Tuesday pleaded guilty in the Brisbane Supreme Court to the attempted murder of her 68-year-old dad in September 2020.
The court heard Mr Burden was receiving full-time care at a Sandgate aged care facility with severe Alzheimer‘s disease.
During a visit after the end of Covid-19 restrictions, Mr Burden asked his daughter to help him leave, and said “please just kill me”, so she used a pillow to begin suffocating him.
But the Brighton mother-of-two stopped when he began kicking out, and she immediately informed nurses what she had done.
She also waited at the facility for police to arrive and assisted them with her arrest.
Ms Burden was later charged with her father’s attempted murder, with prosecutors on Tuesday noting the man’s impaired cognitive state.
It will be another two weeks before Ms Burden learns whether she will be spending time behind bars, with Justice Soraya Ryan considering sentencing submissions ahead of a July 22 decision.
The Supreme Court heard that the nursing home incident kicked off a turbulent two years in which Ms Burden’s entire life was up-ended, including losing custody of her youngest son.
She has also been prevented from having contact with her father since the incident.
Ms Burden read a statement to the court in which she asked Justice Ryan for a “second chance”, saying she was “a good person who made a grave mistake”.
“I love my father … he is my best friend and we have always been there for each other. We included each other in our lives and supported each other, always,” Ms Burden told the court.
“During our time together (that day) there was a lapse of judgment on my part and it cost me dearly.”
Ms Burden said she took full responsibility for her actions.
“Every day I wished it had never happened and I hoped this was all just a horrible, horrible nightmare,” she said in court.
“But it isn’t. It’s my life. From the moment I wake in the morning to when I go to sleep at night it consumes my thoughts.
“If I could take it back, I would.”
Ms Burden was granted bail, but was directed that she not drink alcohol and that she needed to abide by a 6pm to 6am curfew.
Read related topics:Brisbane