Alleged murder victim given ‘promise’ to end suffering
Rex Martinich
A murder victim who was allegedly largely paralyzed by a fatal brain disease told his sons and his wife to promise to kill him, a magistrate heard.
Kylie Ellina Truswell-Mobbs, 51, appeared in the Brisbane Magistrates Court on Monday for a committal hearing charged with the murder of her husband David Ronald Mobbs.
Mobbs, 56, died between 5 and 6 December 2023 at the family’s home in Alexandra Hills, south-east of Brisbane.
Truswell-Mobbs was accused of making three attempts to administer a lethal combination of drugs to Mobbs through a feeding tube.
His son, Rylee Relja, told the hearing that his stepfather wanted to end his life if he could no longer use the toilet.
Judge Lewis Shillito heard that point came on December 5, 2023.
“He was distraught, he was sad. He was crying,” Relja said.
He told police the toilet incident was a “trigger” for his parents.
“I know my father promised my mother that he wouldn’t want to continue fighting if something like this happened,” he said.
Asked by Truswell-Mobbs’ lawyer, Ruth O’Gorman, whether that meant Mobbs wanted to die, Relja replied: “Yes.”
Truswell-Mobbs sat in the dock wearing a T-shirt, jeans and sandals and frequently dabbed her eyes with a tissue as she listened to testimony.
Mobbs’ health deteriorated rapidly after he was diagnosed with motor neuron disease, an incurable neurological disease that gradually destroys the brain’s ability to communicate with the muscles.
He was bedridden and could communicate by winking, grunting, and placing his finger on letters written on a signature board.
Relja said he left the family home for less than 30 minutes at 11pm to get takeaway food.
“You said, ‘My mother told me that she gave my father something called a cocktail,'” O’Gorman said.
“Yes,” he said.
Relja asks her father “is this what you want?” He stated that he asked. and blinked twice in response, meaning “yes.”
I asked Mobbs “are you sure you want to overdose?” was asked [overdose] or words to that effect,” and blinked twice again, Relja said.
Shillito heard that he died peacefully in his sleep within the next few hours.
Crown prosecutor Stephanie Gallagher asked Relja how she was sure Truswell-Mobbs had made an agreement with Mobbs to end her life on December 5.
“I can’t remember,” he said.
His brother, Jayden Relja, also testified Monday and said he was away from home when his father was allegedly administered a fatal dose of drugs.
“Surely you can give it another week,” he asked his father after a meeting on December 5 to discuss palliative care and possibly assistance in dying.
“He had a little bit of a sad face, but he nodded ‘yes’ and raised his eyebrows,” Jayden Relja said.
After hearing other witnesses, Shillito ordered Truswell-Mobbs to be tried in Superior Court on a date to be determined.
He refused to say anything in response and was detained.
AAP
