Man jailed for encouraging wife to commit suicide for insurance payout
A husband hoping to get his hands on a $1.4 million-dollar life insurance windfall has been sentenced to 10 years in jail.
On Friday, Graham Morant was jailed for convincing his sick wife that suicide was the only option left for her.
Jennifer Morant, 56, was described as a “bubbly” woman who made friends everywhere she went.
But she was also vulnerable, suffering from anxiety, depression and chronic pain.
Four years ago she took her life, but not alone.
Her husband counselled and aided her suicide at their Oxenford, Queensland home.
“It’s very sad that he had to think like this, and that she was forced to think like this,” Jennifer’s sister Lynette Lucas said outside court.
The judge ruled that Graham Morant’s motive was money.
His wife’s three separate life insurance policies were worth $1.4 million, the last two taken out the year before she died.
“You convinced Mrs Morant that she should kill herself, in doing so you took advantage of her vulnerability as a sick and depressed woman,” Queensland Supreme Court Justice Peter Davis said.
But before her death, she confided in her sister and friend, telling them her born-again Christian husband drove her past the property he planned to buy when she died and turn into a religious commune.
He also told her God wouldn’t see it as a sin, but something good for the church.
Morant’s sentence has set a national precedent as the first recorded case of counselling suicide in the country.