Woman wanted parents' deaths to look like accidents to 'save face', court hears

CONTENT WARNING: This story refers to alleged child abuse.

A woman who tried to organise the murder of her parents was allegedly motivated by childhood trauma, a court has heard.

While agreed facts have not been made public, it is alleged the now-30-year-old woman tried contacting an online hitman through the dark web to murder her parents.

Region has previously reported the woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, stood to inherit a share of $8 million if her parents died.

After initially pleading not guilty, days before she was set to face a trial, she pled guilty to two counts of incitement to murder earlier this year.

During a sentencing hearing in the ACT Supreme Court on Friday (1 November), clinical psychologist Tabitha Frew said the woman’s previously undiagnosed autism and PTSD from an alleged childhood sexual assault may have driven her decision to offend.

Neither parent was accused of committing the sexual assault.

“It is my view that if she was not sexually abused by a family member, she would not have committed the offences,” she said.

Ms Frew also described the offending as being influenced by an “overlap” between the woman’s autism and PTSD rather than either acting as a “stand-alone condition”.

A childhood sexual assault has a “significant impact, often, on their [the victim’s] sense of self”, she said, as well as “their moral and ethical reasoning of good and bad in the world”.

Ms Frew said she was confident the woman was being honest about the incident after using psychological tests to evaluate her truthfulness.

“It took longer for her to explain it. I noticed her breathing, her physiological state [were] elevated,” she said.

“Her communication was different to when she was talking about other things.”

Prosecutor Marcus Dyason pressed Ms Frew on whether she had considered times when the woman had lied in forming her professional opinion.

“Same context [of giving] two different answers. Does that impact on your assessment that [the woman] is someone who isn’t prone to fabrications?”

He pointed to the woman telling police that she didn’t know what Bitcoin or what the dark web was, and her differing accounts of past drug use.

“[Autistic people can] say yes to everything – admit to crimes the person didn’t do – or say no to everything – when they’re under significant pressure,” she said.

Mr Dyason also questioned Ms Frew’s view of the woman stopping payments, suggesting this was because she “did not have the [financial] capacity” to make the payments.

“I wouldn’t comment whether she would have gone ahead with the offending if she had the money. That would be speculating,” she said.

Ms Frew said the woman’s mental health “did seem to be worsening” in the lead-up to the offending.

The woman’s desire for her parents’ murders to look like an accident was an attempt to “save face” by making it appear that it “wasn’t that someone had killed them or been out to get them”, she said.

Mr White said his client had committed to rehabilitation.

“She’s now working two jobs, she’s studying, she’s embraced fitness,” he said.

In her report, Ms Frew evaluated the woman to have a low risk of future violent offending.

She told the court the woman now had “other supports around her that she could lean on rather than committing another offence” and had seen “development of her moral reasoning” since being taken into custody.

However, Ms Frew also recommended the woman continue to receive psychological treatment.

“I do think a therapy dog would be of extra benefit for [the woman],” she said.

The woman is expected to be sentenced in December. Her bail was continued.

If this story has raised any concerns for you, 1800RESPECT, the national 24-hour sexual assault, family and domestic violence counselling line, can be contacted on 1800 737 732.