A former teacher who imported euthanasia drugs has been convicted and fined $7500 today.
Lower Hutt woman Susan Dale Austen was found guilty in February on two counts of importing the Class C drug pentobarbitone, though she was found not guilty of assisting suicide.
The latter charge related to the death of euthanasia advocate Anne-Marie Treadwell, 77, who was found dead in her bedroom at a retirement village in Kilbirnie in June 2016.
Austen, 67, is the head of the Wellington branch of pro-euthanasia group Exit International.
Austen appeared before Justice Susan Thomas in the High Court at Wellington this morning for sentencing on the importation charges.
Outside court, Austen told media she would not import pentobarbitone again.
"I'm not stupid," she said.
She said the judge's comments were "the judge's opinion" and she did not want to comment on them.
Reading from a statement, Austen said the court process had been a "nightmarish ordeal" for her, and that she was disappointed in the outcome.
However, the overwhelming love and support she'd received from supporters was "awe-inspiring".
The experience had also brought she and her husband closer together, she said.
"To have been arrested, to have spent a night in a cell, then to have been tried in the High Court of New Zealand has had a profound effect on me, but I believe I have become stronger."
She also urged members of the public and MPs to support a law change making euthanasia legal.
When asked whether she would be appealing her conviction, Austen said it was "being discussed".
In his sentencing submissions, her lawyer Donald Stevens, QC, said Austen was a person who demonstrated "compassion, love for humanity, and support for others in their suffering".
He spoke of one conversation that had been intercepted and recorded by police, in which Austen's husband talked about a man who had died alone in a hotel in Wellington.
Austen said she would have gone to dinner with the man so he didn't have to spend his last meal alone.
"That would have been an exceptionally difficult thing to do," Stevens said.
He pointed to Austen's history of volunteer work, which including work for Victim Support, Rape Crisis, 13 years at the Women's Refuge, six years on the crisis lifeline, work for Alzheimers NZ, Habitat for Humanity, and the Ropata Village Hall.
He said she had "often focused on hoping the vulnerable".
Stevens asked Justice Thomas whether the consequences of a conviction on Austen were out of proportion to the offence.
"Other people are not and have not been prosecuted for importing pentobarbitone," he said.
Over the past 10 years, pentobarbitone had been seized by Customs 59 times, but nobody had ever been prosecuted, he said.
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Stevens said it would be "utterly wrong" to convict Austen when the other 59 people had not been prosecuted.
"You don't just pick on one person and give everyone else a warning letter.
"The Crown overlooks entirely the fundamental principle of justice, that people must be treated in a like manner."
He said the Crown's explanation for the other people not being prosecuted was that it did not have the resources to prosecute every person found to be importing controlled drugs, due to the sheer volume of such offences.
But Stevens said 59 people over the past 10 years would not be a strain on the system, and that the only explanation to be drawn was that authorities had a policy not to prosecute people over pentobarbitone importation.
Austen would unfairly face a stigma from her conviction that nobody else had to face, and a conviction would also affect her ability to take an active role in school activities with her grandchildren, he said.
Two of the charities she was working for also told her that if she were to be convicted, they would have to make a decision as to whether she could continue volunteering with them.
Stevens also pointed to an unlawful police checkpoint that was set up after an Exit meeting at Austen's house.
Police used the checkpoint to gather information about the people attending the meeting. Austen herself was not stopped at the checkpoint.
It had "the potential to undermine the integrity of the judicial process".
"The Crown has failed to explain . . . why Mrs Austen should be the only person in New Zealand to be prosecuted for this offence, and the only person in Australasia to be convicted of it."
Conviction would bring the criminal justice system into disrepute, he said.
Crown prosecutor Kate Feltham said it was not accepted that there was a "blanket policy" not to prosecute pentobarbitone importers, and she also did not accept that Austen was led to believe she would not be prosecuted for her crime.
"Ms Austen was very well aware of the law, she was well aware of the lengths she would need to go to and in fact the lengths she did go to to avoid being apprehended."
She said the offending showed planning and premeditation.
"It wasn't a case simply of her arranging on a one-off occasion for a package to be posted to her in the mail."
Turning to consequences of a conviction, Feltham said police vetting was not required for adults to contribute to school activities, and even if it were, the vetting would show up any involvement with police, not just a conviction.
"This isn't an appropriate case for a discharge without conviction."
Feltham said an appropriate outcome today would be a conviction and some form of community-based sentence.
Justice Thomas said it was "perhaps not surprising" Austen had been charged when others weren't, pointing to the occasion when Austen when to Hong Kong and collected the drug herself, bringing it back to New Zealand concealed in her hand luggage.
"You seek to minimise the seriousness of your offending by referring to what I accept is your genuine desire to help people."
But Justice Thomas said there was "nothing to suggest you are qualified to help people by providing them with a lethal drug".
Austen supplied Treadwell with pentobarbitone without considering whether it was appropriate for her personal circumstances.
Justice Thomas said Austen could be described as being "on a crusade" for a law change, but this did not reduce her culpability in "deliberately seeking to circumvent it".
She had not acknowledged her offending, responsibility for it, or shown any remorse.
Justice Thomas noted Steven's argument that a conviction would impact on Austen's ability to travel overseas, but said this consequence was not out of all proportion to the offending.
"You used your international travel to break the law and it is ironic you seek to avoid conviction because of the impact on future international travel."
Justice Thomas declined the application for a discharge without conviction.
Austen was convicted and fined $7500.
Stevens had argued during the trial Austen did not intend that Treadwell should commit suicide, but assisted her to obtain the pentobarbital - a drug that, taken in large quantities, can suppress the central nervous system, causing a coma and death.
It is commonly used by veterinarians to put down animals.
"She intended that Mrs Treadwell should have control over her end of life issue - having that [drug] could have had a profound palliative effect to reduce suffering," Stevens said.
There are already about 20 people gathered outside the courthouse in support of Austen, holding signs and banners promoting euthanasia.
The signs include phrases such as "no more will die, but fewer will suffer", and "I want a legal choice".
Crown prosecutor Kate Feltham said during the trial that Austen made contact with people in China and Mexico to arrange pentobarbital to be sent to New Zealand, and once picked up a package of the drug at a hotel in Hong Kong and brought it back to New Zealand.
