15 July 2024

Elderly husband convicted of Jean Morley's murder dies in custody

| Claire Fenwicke
Jean Morley

Jean Morley had been suffering from dementia in the year before her murder. Photo: Supplied.

Convicted murderer Donald Morley has died in custody at Clare Holland House.

The 94-year-old had admitted to suffocating his wife, Jean Morley, to death in their Fisher home using a pillow.

An ACT Policing statement announced he had been found dead in the Canberra hospice on Friday (12 July).

“At the time of his death, he was a sentenced prisoner,” it noted.

“There are no suspicious circumstances in relation to his death, and police will submit a report to the Coroner.”

READ ALSO Manfred Uhle pleads not guilty to alleged murder of wife at Gordon townhouse

The ACT Supreme Court had previously heard Morley had been diagnosed with terminal cancer, as skin cancers had entered his brain, and had been given months to live.

Upon sentencing Morley to nine years imprisonment in April, Justice David Mossop noted that time wouldn’t be served behind bars.

“He will most likely [spend the rest of his life] in a hospital or hospice,” he said at the time.

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