Tragic mum couple avoid jail after shipping container death

A FORMER Derwent Valley couple have been given suspended jail sentences for manslaughter over the hypo-thermia death of an elderly woman.

Mick and Jassy Anglin of Mount Lloyd arrive at the Supreme Court in Hobart for sentancing

A FORMER Derwent Valley couple have been given suspended jail sentences for manslaughter over the hypo-thermia death of an elderly woman.

Michael Anglin, 56, and Jassy Anglin, 53, who now live in the Cairns suburb of Yorkeys Knob, have pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of Mrs Anglin’s 77-year-old mother in 2010.

Janet Mackozdi died on July 23 that year after spending a night in a shipping container at the Anglins’ Mt Lloyd property, where the overnight temperature is estimated to have been between 0.1C and 2.9C.

Mrs Mackozdi was frail, suffered from dementia and mobility problems and weighed just 40kg.

She was placed in a bed in the shipping container for one night as the family’s dilapidated living hut was full of boxes from moving house.

Justice Tennent described placing Mrs Mackozdi in the shipping container as “an exceptionally bad decision”.

The couple’s three children — who also slept in the shipping container that night — rose but Mrs Mackozdi did not stir and nobody checked her.

Justice Shan Tennent said that after discovering her body at 9.30 the next morning, the couple dressed Mrs Mackozdi in a tracksuit, beanie and ugg boots and placed her in their car with a blanket over her legs and drove her to New Norfolk District Hospital.

They claimed she had died during a family trip to Mt Field, but their lie was uncovered by police.

Justice Tennent described placing Mrs Mackozdi in the shipping container as “an exceptionally bad decision”.

She said it should have been obvious what the potential serious consequences were of placing her in the shipping container on such a cold night.

While they did not intend to kill Mrs Mackozdi, the offence was one of omission — culpable negligence in failing to provide the necessities of life.

But she said the case was unique and the effect of the bad decision on the couple had been overwhelming. She sentenced both to two years’ jail, wholly suspended. They will each have to pay a $50 victims of crime compensation levy.