Australian woman sentenced to 9 years for killing husband

From The Daily Telegraph (Sydney, Australia)

A WOMAN who killed her estranged quadriplegic husband by setting fire to his Sydney home has been sentenced to a maximum of nine years jail for his manslaughter.

In April, Grace Soon, 71, pleaded not guilty to the murder but guilty to the manslaughter of former church minister Stephen Chin, 63, in September 2006. The crown accepted the plea after psychiatrists agreed she was suffering impaired judgment at the time of the killing.

She admitted pouring petrol on the front fence of his home at Daceyville in Sydney and then throwing a tin of petrol through the window of his bedroom. Soon told police she started the fire because the bankrupt former minister was ``coming after her property''.In May 2006 he had retained lawyers to seek a property settlement with his estranged wife.
Property searches found Soon owned a number of Sydney properties.

The court also heard from Soon that she was humiliated by Mr Chin during their marriage because he visited prostitutes and infected her with syphilis. The bizarre circumstances in which Mr Chin became a quadriplegic - a fall during a 1999 sex orgy with a transsexual - were also aired in court.

In the NSW Supreme Court today Justice Michael Grove sentenced Soon to a maximum of nine years jail for the killing, which he described as ``a monstrous act''. He gave Soon a non-parole period of five years and six months, to expire on March 4, 2012.

The start date of Soon's sentence was September 5, 2006.

Justice Grove said the killing had been primarily motivated by money, and dismissed sentencing submissions by Soon's legal team that Mr Chin's errant behaviour during their marriage had provoked the woman.
``I have no doubt that the marriage was most unhappy, and a bit of a sham,'' Justice Grove said.
``I reject the evidence that the continued misconduct brought you to the point of ... killing him.
``The prospect of property settlement was uppermost in your mind and it inspired your crime.''
Justice Grove also dismissed submissions that Soon had not realised the full weight of what she had done.

``I cannot find any evidence that you did not know the nature and quality of your act,'' he said.
``There is a scarcity of contrition by you.''

Ms Soon sat hunched in the dock with her head bowed throughout the 45-minute sentencing.