Jury quick to convict doctor of murder

Psychiatrist Colin Bouwer has begun a life sentence after one of the fastest murder verdicts in years.

A jury in the High Court at Christchurch yesterday took just over three hours to return the verdict that the Dunedin doctor murdered his wife, Annette.

That time included an hour lunching at a restaurant and a 10-minute cigarette break.

Bouwer did not react either to the verdict or to Justice Graham Panckhurst's imposition of the mandatory life sentence.

The court was told during the seven-week trial that the 51-year-old South African-born doctor administered a cocktail of drugs to his wife between November 1999 and January last year to fatally lower her blood-sugar level.

Bouwer may end up serving more than the minimum 10 years, as prosecutor Robin Bates is applying for a longer non-parole period. A close friend of Mrs Bouwer in Dunedin called for the life sentence to mean he would never be released.

Reactions to the verdict in the courtroom were muted.

Bouwer's children, 17-year-old Greg and 15-year-old Anthea, had sat with a bevy of supporters including Dunedin psychiatrist Anne Walsh, who was nominated in court as a motive for the murder because of her affair with Bouwer.

Greg Bouwer said there was "no comment currently", while Dr Walsh brushed away tears after the courtroom cleared.

When approached outside court, a man who identified himself only as a family supporter said the family were disappointed, adding: "They just want to get home and have a little bit of time."

Bouwer's lawyer, David More, said outside court that Bouwer told him afterwards of his gratitude for the support he had received.

Mr More declined to say whether he would appeal.

Bouwer came to New Zealand in 1997 from South Africa.

Police say he was reluctant to simply leave his wife for lover and fellow Dunedin psychiatrist Anne Walsh, fearing it would not have gone down well with friends, family and colleagues.

There were claims Bouwer was a political prisoner and tortured while aged in his early 20s, during South Africa's apartheid era, prompting a fear of prisons and enclosed spaces.

He told people he lost a testicle to prostate cancer and later produced a forged letter from South African medical officials saying he had received treatment for the cancer.

He claimed to have been a member of the African National Congress since he was a teenager, although he served with the South African Army.

He told a colleague his wife had been gang raped in South Africa, causing difficulties in their relationship. He said his wife was of the Jewish faith, when he asked for her post mortem be carried out quickly because the faith required her to be buried within 48 hours.

But Mrs Bouwer's funeral was held in a Christian church.

Added to that were false prescriptions Bouwer issued in the name of former patients - for drugs which mirrored his wife's illness.

He began an affair with Dr Walsh while they were at a conference in Copenhagen in 1999 and which continued after his wife's death.

Before that he was in a relationship with a woman in Invercargill.

Detective Senior Sergeant Jim Doyle, the officer in charge of the investigation, said he was not surprised by the speed of the verdict, which vindicated two years of hard work by the police.

At the trial, Brenda Ruddock, Annette Bouwer's sister in South Africa, said Bouwer had claimed it would be "easy to commit the perfect murder in New Zealand because the police were not equipped to handle complicated cases".

Detective Senior Sergeant Doyle said the verdict showed the true capability of the New Zealand police.

A friend of Mrs Bouwer in Dunedin, Eldeen Simpson, said the life sentence should be just that, without possibility for parole.

"Life in this country isn't really life. He doesn't deserve to ever get out. I met Annette in a high school computer course, which she'd taken to help Colin [Bouwer] with his research. She was a really loving and warm and sincere person. We hit it off right away."

Mrs Bouwer had to drop out of the course because of the onset of her illness. Mrs Simpson said she "just felt sick" when she learned that Bouwer had been deliberately poisoning her.

"The thought that he made go through all that.

"[The murder] wasn't for a whole lot of money. And to make all the doctors go through that too, all for his benefit," Mrs Simpson said.

"Every time he gave her [drugs], he thought about killing her.

"It wasn't like he got a gun and went home and shot her. It's something he did over and over and over again."

Son says Bouwer a bad father

Convicted murderer Colin Bouwer found it easier to run away than face his responsibilities, says his South African son, who is also charged with murder.

Colin Bouwer jun said his father's arrest last year came as a huge surprise to him and his mother, Mariette Kruger, the first of his father's three wives.

Bouwer jun, aged 25, is awaiting trial on charges of murdering his 23-year-old wife, Marie Louise Bouwer, in their Johannesburg home. She was found strangled in their guest bathroom in the Kempton Park area on May 7, 1999.

Police worked on the case for several months, before Mrs Bouwer's mother employed a private investigator to conduct a separate investigation.

A year later, Bouwer jun, who runs his own air-conditioning installation business, was charged with murder.

Last month, Kruger, 53, was charged with being an accessory to murder.

It is alleged she aided her son by giving him a false alibi and also tampered with the murder scene.

The pair are on bail and scheduled to appear in the Supreme Court in Johannesburg in June next year.

Bouwer jun said his father had always found it easier to run away than face up to his responsibilities.

He had received no support from his father since he was arrested.

"He wasn't much of a father, as he stayed in Cape Town. He never phoned ... I always had to do it.

"When I was younger he could never remember how old I was, or in what standard I was at school. I was always the one making contact.

"He was never interested in me or my sister."

When his father visited South Africa last year, his son said he never knew he was in the country.

- NZPA