By Rebecca Peppiatt and Ezra Holt
A Perth former nurse has been found guilty of attempting to murder her husband with a lethal dose of insulin after becoming his full-time carer following a dementia diagnosis.
There was an audible reaction from the gallery and tears from jury members as Wendy Ruth Sym, 63, was found guilty in the WA Supreme Court on Monday.
Wendy Ruth Sym was found guilty of attempting to murder her husband, who she cared for.
During a two-week trial, the court was told Sym sent a late-night text message admitting she could “kill him” – referring to her husband, Kenneth – during a dementia-related episode just days before the incident in 2021.
Kenneth, a type 2 diabetic, was taken to the emergency department at Joondalup Health Campus by ambulance after having a fall and becoming increasingly confused.
There, prosecutors claim, he experienced a prolonged period of hypoglycemia after being given a dose of insulin that caused his blood pressure to plummet – which could have killed him, the court was told, had it not been for the efforts of hospital staff.
State prosecutor Adam Ebell told the court the evidence indicated the person who administered the dose on January 15, 2021, was Wendy – a claim she denied.
Ebell said the evidence painted the picture of someone under an extraordinary amount of stress who was at the end of her tether, which prompted her to quicken the end of her husband’s life.
He told the court that pressure had only been exacerbated in the six weeks leading up to the incident, with Kenneth suffering two strokes which worsened his condition.
The court was shown a text message Wendy sent just before midnight on January 12, 2021, in which she described having been awoken by Kenneth “talking nonsense”, refusing to get into bed, and having emptied the contents of the refrigerator.
“He has pulled out a box under the bed and stuff is everywhere,” she wrote.
“I honestly could kill him. I won’t, of course.
“Give me a 12-hour night shift with no sleep rather than this.”
The court was told after Kenneth’s admission to Joondalup Health Campus, Wendy had requested no observations or medical intervention be conducted on her husband while she was gone from his side, before CCTV captured her leaving the hospital at 1.45pm on January 15, 2021.
The alarm was raised when a nurse who went to conduct an ECG on Kenneth later that afternoon couldn’t wake him and could smell insulin.
But that alarm was not an emergency warning because the court was told Wendy had signed a “do not resuscitate” order just hours earlier.
The court was told the nurse, who became suspicious of Wendy, followed her into the toilets after she returned to the hospital and uncovered an insulin vial dated April 9, 2018 – and allegedly containing Wendy’s DNA – in a waste bin.
That type of insulin was not stocked at Joondalup Health Campus, Ebell said, but was used at Princess Margaret Hospital (now Perth Children’s Hospital), where Wendy had worked in 2018.
Wendy’s DNA was also allegedly found on a syringe with traces of insulin found in a sharps’ container alongside Kenneth’s bed.
In a police interview on January 20, 2021, Wendy denied Kenneth required insulin, denied asking nursing staff to leave him alone, and said she did not recall going to the toilet.
She also insisted that despite his worsening condition, she wasn’t finding it difficult to care for Kenneth.
He survived the overdose, but Kenneth – who was opposed to the practice of voluntary euthanasia – died due to natural causes months later.
Wendy Sym will be sentenced at a later date.
with Jesinta Burton
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