Raelene Polymiadis, accused of fatally poisoning her parents, wins bail

A woman who allegedly poisoned her parents with insulin has won bail after her family put up a fortune – and a judge rejected police claims she was sneaking sugar to manipulate her diabetes.

Alleged poisoning double murderer Raelene Polymiadis has won bail after her family agreed to forfeit $610,000 should she disobey her release conditions – and a judge rejected allegations she has been “sneaking sugar” to “manipulate” her diabetes.

On Tuesday, Supreme Court Justice Julie McIntyre released Mrs Polymiadis on strict home detention bail, banning her from speaking to her brother or her two sisters.

She said the prosecution case was strong, but ruled members of the Polymiadis family having surrendered cash and offering mortgages on various properties, totalling $610,000, would guarantee she obeyed her bail restrictions.

Justice McIntyre also lifted suppression orders that have shrouded her marathon bid for release.

The Advertiser can now report that, during the hearings, prosecutors accused Mrs Polymiadis – who was rushed to hospital in chains at one point – of “deliberately malingering” to win bail.

Until now, the only matters reportable have been claims made by Mrs Polymiadis that her health was at risk due to “inept” treatment by prison doctors and nurses.

Raelene Polymiadis is yet to plead to two counts of murder over the deaths of her parents Lynton and Brenda Anderson. Picture: Supplied

It can now be reported that, during the hearings, prosecutor Karen Ingleton told the court there was another plausible explanation for Mrs Polymiadis’ medical episodes.

“We have materials giving rise to the possibility that Mrs Polymiadis is manipulating her blood sugar level in prison,” she said.

“We submit Your Honour should have concerns about whether she is deliberately malingering in relation to her treatment situation and what happened in this court when she was taken to hospital.

“We submit that Mrs Polymiadis has been consuming amounts of sugar in prison and deliberately altering her (testing results).”

Ms Ingleton said SA Police had obtained prison CCTV footage showing Mrs Polymiadis “sneaking sugar” from the kitchens into her cell.

She further alleged Mrs Polymiadis had asked her cellmate to obtain sugar for her, and spoken at length with another inmate who was trained as a registered nurse.

Those conversations, she alleged, concerned Mrs Polymiadis questioning the inmate about the correlation between blood sugar levels and high blood pressure.

Marie Shaw KC, for Mrs Polymiadis, argued the allegations were “highly prejudicial” – prompting the suppression order – but had no relevance to the question of bail.

She said diabetes was about “management, not exclusion, of sugar” and her client would only have consumed sugar “based on what her readings were”.

In her decision on bail, Justice McIntyre ruled the “sugar sneaking” allegations were “circumstantial” and an insufficient reason to deny strictly-monitored release.

Mrs Polymiadis, 62, has been charged with two counts of murder over the deaths of her parents Brenda and Lynton Anderson, both 94, in 2022 and 2023.

Brenda Anderson died in hospital after being administered with insulin resulting in fatally low blood sugar, the court previously heard. Picture: Supplied

The court heard a year later, Mr Anderson was found unconscious on the floor of his home, with autopsy results revealing he too had been dosed with insulin. Picture: Supplied

Mrs Anderson died in hospital after allegedly being administered with insulin resulting in fatally low blood sugar, the court previously heard.

The court heard a year later, Mr Anderson was found unconscious on the floor of his home, with autopsy results revealing he too had insulin in his system, as well as a second tranquilliser-like substance later found in his home.

He died in hospital shortly after.

Tuesday’s decision marks the end of a lengthy hearing over Mrs Polymiadis’s eligibility for bail.

She claimed her diabetes is being mismanaged while in custody and had asked the court to grant her home detention bail so she can manage her diabetes “successfully” as she has done for the past “40 years”.

Ms Shaw previously told the court her client would be in the hands of people who weren’t equipped to manage her illness if she was not granted bail.

“She will potentially – for the next two years, day in and day out, without the scrutiny of a Supreme Court justice – be at the mercy of prison health services whose management has been described as inept,” she said.

“When she returned from hospital, she requested to split her insulin and was refused. When she requested to speak to a doctor about it, she was told there was no doctor available that day.”

Ms Polymiadis collapsed in the Supreme Court cells before a previous court hearing, with fears she had suffered a diabetic attack.

Raelene Polymiadis was wheeled out of Adelaide's District Court by paramedics after collapsing in the cells on July 25. Picture: NCA NewsWIRE / Emma Brasier

However, hospital notes revealed the incident was caused by stress, not her diabetes.

On Monday, Ms Ingleton told the court Mrs Polymiadis was allegedly the last person to have seen her father alive.

She said still shots from a CCTV camera nearby her father’s house showed Ms Polymiadis leaving the premises at about 1-1.15pm on the day he was found dead.

“He was found unconscious by his carer at about 3pm that day,” Ms Ingleton said.

“The last person that had any contact with Mrs Polymiadis’ father, prior to him being found unconscious on the floor, was Mrs Polymiadis.”

Mrs Polymiadis will return to court in December.

Originally published as Raelene Polymiadis, accused of fatally poisoning her parents, wins bail