For months, Graham Robert Morant persuaded his wife to end her life.
The self-styled pastor spoke openly to her about how he would spend her $1.4 million life insurance payouts on building a religious commune to shelter from an “imminent” rapture.
On an evening in November 2014, Jennifer Morant, 56, was found by police behind the wheel of her car wearing sunglasses with a post-it note saying “do not resuscitate me”.
Four years later Morant – then 69 – became the first person in Australia to be jailed for counselling and aiding a suicide, receiving a 10-year sentence after a jury found him guilty.
However, his son Angus Morant applied for an inquest, believing his stepmother was not alone when she died and must have been aided at the scene by a “person or persons unknown”.
He made unsuccessful applications to the state coroner and Brisbane District Court.
He then took the matter to Queensland’s Court of Appeal.
Angus Morant sought leave to appeal the District Court decision, relying on five grounds including “it risked leaving a crime uninvestigated”.
The 2018 trial heard that Morant took advantage of his wife who was depressed and suffered chronic back pain in a bid to get his hands on her money.
He told her she would not be sinning if she ended her life because it would benefit him and the church.
Morant then helped her do it, by purchasing equipment and putting it in her car.
The next evening her husband returned home from church to find a note from his wife indicating she “intended to do herself some harm”.
He contacted police who later found Mrs Morant deceased in her car 10km from home.
The deputy state coroner found Mrs Morant died from suicide and did not propose to hold an inquest.
There was no evidence that any other person besides Graham Morant was involved in her death, the findings said.
In Angus Morant’s District Court application, the judge found his suspicions that others were involved in causing his stepmother’s death were “unreasonable” and the public interest was not served by ordering an inquest.
A Queensland Court of Appeal decision handed down last week found there was no merit in any of Angus Morant’s grounds and that no error by the District Court judge had been shown.
The application for leave to appeal was refused.
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