‘Insufficient prospects of success’: High Court refuses to hear appeal from Tasmanian mother-killer

A woman convicted of murdering her mother, before draining her bank account and fleeing Tasmania, has been refused a chance to fight her case in the High Court of Australia.

Veronica Corstorphine was murdered by her daughter in October 2019.

The High Court of Australia has refused to hear an appeal from Natalie Maher, who was convicted of murdering her mother before draining her bank account and fleeing Tasmania.

The nation’s highest court has decided Maher’s case has “insufficient prospects of success” and raises no issues of public interest.

In October 2019, Maher smothered 71-year-old Veronica Corstorphine in the bedroom of her South Launceston home – following an escalation in her “long-held personal antagonism” towards her mother, and carried out in “a loss of control or passion”.

Following a 2021 Supreme Court of Tasmania trial, Maher was convicted of murder and jailed for a maximum of 23 years.

The High Court of Australia has knocked back a request to hear an appeal from convicted murderer Natalie Maher. Image source: Google Images

In July this year, Maher lost a Tasmanian Court of Criminal Appeal attempt to have her murder conviction overturned.

The 50-year-old failed to convince Justices Stephen Estcourt and Michael Brett that she had been harangued in an “oppressive” police video interview that she claimed should have been excluded at trial.

Justice Gregory Geason was a sole dissenting judge.

Now, in a special leave disposition published by all seven judges of the High Court, Maher’s application seeking leave to appeal for an order to quash her conviction and for a retrial has been refused.

“The application has insufficient prospects of success to warrant a grant of special leave to appeal,” the judges said.

“Moreover, the application raises no issue of general principle that is of public importance.”

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

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