Four years jail for attempted murder

Press, 2 June 1984, Page 4

Four years jail for attempted murder

A man, who handed over Christmas presents for his two small children to his estranged wife, and then said “This is for you,” and shot her twice with a .22 rifle, was a sad case, Mr Justice Roper said in the High Court yesterday. His Honour jailed Gary Richard Wiley, aged 29, a tile maker, for four years on a charge of attempted murder of his wife, Sandra Paulette Wiley, aged 29, on December 23, 1983. His two small children, a boy, aged three, and a girl, aged five, were in the house in Jervois Street, South Brighton, when Wiley tried to murder their mother. Wiley was standing at the front door of the marital home at about 6 p.m. and after handing over the children’s Christmas presents, he flung back overalls he had had over the rifle and shot his wife in the left breast. With blood streaming from the wound she

stumbled to the kitchen where Wiley fired a second shot into her stomach. As she escaped out the back door he fired a third shot but it did not go off. Leaving a trail of blood Mrs Wiley staggered next door but before she could reach the house she collapsed on the lawn. For Wiley, Mr M. J. Glue said that his client was a pathetic and inadequate figure, of limited intelligence, extremely immature, badly depressed and suicidal. Following attempts to kill himself by slashing his wrists Wiley had been sent to Sunnyside Hospital. Had diminished responsibility been available under New Zealand law, it could have been advanced on Wiley’s behalf. By pleading guilty Wiley had saved the State the expense of a trial. His wife was very fortunate that a third round misfired. He had

been in custody since Christmas Eve. Following his guilty plea Wiley made a woefully inadequate attempt to cut an artery and would be a constant worry to the prison authorities. Repeatedly Wiley declared that he loved his wife and was obsessionally and deeply involved with his children, Mr Glue said. Wiley should be detained in a mental hospital rather than a prison, counsel submitted. His Honour said that he had no power to send Wiley to a psychiatric hospital. Mr G. K. Panckhurst appeared for the Crown. Wiley had shot his wife twice with a .22 rifle, his Honour said. By sheer good fortune there was no really serious injury, although she spent 13 days in hospital. “Yours is a very sad case, Wiley. You were separated from your wife and'children and you were concerned for your children’s welfare, and

it seems that you reacted in a violent way because with your limited intellect and emotional immaturity you saw no other way of dealing with the matter,” said his Honour. He agreed with Mr Glue that if diminished responsibility had been a defence in New Zealand it would certainly have been open to Wiley. He had given anxious consideration to Wiley’s sentence and he had considered sentences that had been imposed in New Zealand and England. A substantial term of imprisonment was the normal punishment. Wiley had to be jailed but there were mitigating factors which justified a sentence at the lower end of the scale. Although it was a matter for the prison authorities, it seemed clear that hospital would be the more appropriate place for Wiley. The prison authorities had it in their power to arrange that, his Honour said.