‘Tragedy’: Grieving man who buried his illegal immigrant partner has suffered enough, Magistrate says

A grief-stricken man unlawfully buried his partner close to his home in accordance with her wishes, after she was too scared of deportation to seek cancer treatment. MAGISTRATE’S HEARTBREAKING COMMENTS >>

Soo Lan Chuah’s fear of deportation back to Malaysia during the pandemic saw her suffer in silence before a mouth cancer eventually claimed her life.

Her partner Olaf Vennik was respecting her dying wishes when he buried her on a rural property at Cranbrook on the East Coast, but he was also breaking the law.

The 71-year-old appeared in the Hobart Magistrates Court on Wednesday to be sentenced for one count of unlawfully disposing of human remains and one count of failing an obligation to report a death.

Vennik had previously pleaded guilty to these charges.

The court heard Vennik and Ms Chuah lived in a caravan on his sister’s propertyat Cranbrook, where the pair had kept mostly to themselves since she arrived in the state in 2018.

Magistrate Jackie Hartnett said the pair was “devoted” to each other, so the woman chose to remain in Tasmania past her visa expiry.

When a lump on Ms Chuah’s tongue developed into a serious, inoperable mouth cancer, Vennik pleaded with her to seek medical treatment.

She eventually saw a dentist who said her disease was aggressive and terminal.

“Towards the end you were caring for her,” Ms Hartnett said to Vennik.

“(It) must have been very frightening for her and you were there for her.

“She was aware that she was obviously going to die.”

The pair had discussed her wishes, and Ms Chuah wanted her remains to rest on Vennik’s sister’s property in Tasmania.

After a painful decline in health that led to the 65-year-old’s death in August 2020, the court heard Vennik buried her in a sandy mound.

“Of course you were aware that that was unlawful, but I see that you acted in regards to her wishes out of love, and not out of trying to avoid responsibility for things that would flow from her death” Ms Hartnett said.

“You were obviously grieving her loss.”

Olaf Vennik’s sister Johanna Donald and her husband Anthony Donald outside the Hobart Magistrates Court in November. Picture: Annie McCann.

The magistrate described the circumstances as “tragic” and said the severity of Vennik’s punishment needed only to deter others from illegally disposing of human remains.

“I don’t see that there’s much the court can do in deterring you or punishing you that you haven’t already gone through to a great degree,” Ms Hartnett said.

She convicted the Cranbrook man, who hopes to move to Queensland to improve his health ailments, and fined him $1600.

“Thank you, your honour,” an emotional Vennik said.

Vennik’s sister Johanna Donald and her husband Anthony Donald were sentenced in December last year for one count each of failing an obligation to report a death after they became aware Ms Chuah had passed.

Acting Magistrate Sam Mollard had convicted and fined the pair $800 each in Hobart.