South African-born psychiatrist Colin Bouwer began faking his own illness when questions were asked about the death of his wife from a supposed tumour, the Crown said in the High Court at Christchurch yesterday.
Bouwer, aged 51, former head of psychological medicine at Otago University, is accused of murdering his
wife, Annette.
He is said to have killed her by poisoning her over two months with a "clever cocktail of drugs" that replicated the symptoms of a pancreatic tumour but could not be detected by normal blood tests.
But when a colleague called for a coroner's inquest into her death instead of signing the death certificate, Bouwer allegedly began to concoct a tale of his own cancer and depression.
He stood to gain $262,000 if she died of natural causes.
While on bereavement leave after her death on January 5 last year, Bouwer travelled to his homeland, where he allegedly obtained a doctor's letterhead and created a bogus letter claiming he had prostate cancer.
Covert police surveillance of electronic contact between Bouwer and his New Zealand mistress Dr Anne Walsh also revealed "elaborate scheming" between them to backdate a psychiatric report referring to his supposed cancer, depression, and suicidal thoughts.
Yesterday, Healthcare Otago administrator Stephen Bayne said Bouwer had told him soon after Mrs Bouwer's death that he planned to go to South Africa "where he was going to get treatment, I understood, for cancer".
"He told me when he got back as well.
"He showed me an official letter, which as I understood it, was signed by a medical person indicating that he had had treatment while in South Africa," Mr Bayne said.
Asked whether he kept a copy of the letter, he replied: "No, the details were quite personal and I didn't think it necessary. I understood [from him] that he was also suffering from depression at the time."
The hearing before Justice Graham Panckhurst continues today.
- NZPA
