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The man found guilty of attempting to murder his terminally ill mother says he is pleased with the outcome of his trial and, in particular, the jury's unusual request for leniency for him.
"To me, that's a win, what they've said, that jury," Ian Crutchley, 49, told the
Herald yesterday.
Crutchley, a self-employed plumber, was found guilty on Wednesday night of attempting to murder his 77-year-old mother Elsie by giving her an overdose of medication on February 5 last year.
She was in the final stages of stomach cancer and died a few hours later.
During Crutchley's trial, the court heard that the elderly woman had been thrashing about in her bed at a Taumarunui rest-home and crying, "Help me, help me", before Crutchley administered the drugs.
In delivering its guilty verdict, the jury requested leniency for Crutchley, saying: "The events of the fifth of February are such that no person should have to endure."
Crutchley told the Herald that although he had been found guilty, he was grateful the jurors had reached a verdict and saved him the stress and expense of another trial if they had not been able to make a decision.
He is due to appear in the High Court at Hamilton again this morning for a sentencing date to be set, and said he was hopeful he would avoid jail.
He said based on the facts of the case, the jury was never going to find him innocent, but in his mind he was not guilty.
"I broke the law but my conscience is clear. I don't feel guilty. My conscience is not pricking me. It never has. I've always felt innocent over the whole thing."
He stuck by comments he had made in his defence that he just wanted to end his mother's suffering. "I wanted my mother to die, but I didn't kill her, or I didn't try to kill her and I didn't try to murder her."
He did not support a law change on euthanasia, saying every case was different and needed to be treated as such, but he believed the quality of care for dying people could be better, particularly in small towns.
He was grateful for the support of his family, and particularly his sister, Diane Millins, who publicly protested her brother's innocence.
"I sort of had a bit of an attitude towards her all my life, and that's changed now. I feel like we're a team."
Crutchley also praised his lawyer, Roger Laybourn, saying he was "a great lawyer and a great help", and had his work cut out for him against a "very, very good prosecutor".
Mr Laybourn told Radio New Zealand the jury request for leniency was uncommon but recognised in law.
"But the comment on the circumstances that he [Crutchley] faced in this position, that nobody should ever be required or expected to endure, that is absolutely unprecedented," he said.