Peter Dansie, who murdered wheelchair-bound wife by drowning her in pond, loses appeal

A man who drowned his wheelchair-bound wife in a pond in the Adelaide parklands is likely to die behind bars after his appeal was dismissed.

A man who drowned his wheelchair-bound wife in a pond in the Adelaide parklands is likely to die behind bars after his appeal was dismissed.

Peter Rex Dansie, 71, was handed a 25-year non-parole period after a judge found he murdered his wife, 67-year-old Helen, at Veale Gardens in April 2017.

An appeal against his conviction was on Monday rejected by two of three justices sitting in the Court of Criminal Appeal, who ruled Dansie had not presented any evidence of a miscarriage of justice.

The pond at Veale Gardens where Helen Dansie, who was wheelchair-bound, died. Picture: Tait Schmaal

The dissenting third, Justice Kevin Nicholson, found accidental drowning could not be excluded as a reasonable possibility.

Dansie had also argued that the trial judge made errors of law and failed to fully explain the reasons for the verdict, but all three justices disagreed.

The outcome effectively closes the door on Dansie’s attempt to claim his murdered wife’s assets.

During his trial, the court heard Dansie told police he had briefly climbed into the pond after his wife fell in, and he tried unsuccessfully to rescue her.

Peter Dansie was handed a 25-year non-parole period for the murder of his wife, Helen, in 2017. Picture: SA Police

But prosecutors argued it was “no accident” that Mrs Dansie’s wheelchair ended up in the water, and that her husband’s account of what happened was implausible.

They said Dansie felt his wife had become a burden and he was interested in pursuing a sexual relationship with a woman he had been communicating with in China.

Mrs Dansie, a former scientist, suffered a stroke in the 1990s that left her with long-term disabilities.

In sentencing remarks delivered earlier this year, Justice David Lovell called the murder the “ultimate act of domestic violence”.

“Yours was an evil and despicable act,” he said.

“This was a chilling, planned murder of a person whose only mistake was to trust you.”

Dansie will be in his mid-nineties before he is eligible for parole, although given health issues including a heart condition he will likely die in jail.