After more than ten years of pernicious abuse at his hands, a lady killed her husband by putting drugs in handmade cookies. She will serve at least ten years in prison.
A Supreme Court jury in rural Victoria convicted Rebecca Payne, 43, responsible for Noel Payne’s murder earlier this year.
She laced the icing of biscuits with Temazepam in September 2020 and served them to him with a cup of Milo.
In the backyard of their Walpeup family home, Payne wrapped her husband in a blanket and placed his body in a chest freezer.
She had endured years of coercive control, physical, emotional, and sexual abuse at the hands of Payne before the murder.
He broke off contact with her friends and relatives, prevented her from attending her son’s funeral, and made her get his name tattooed on her 18 times.
Payne once brought her to a cemetery after a disagreement over money, grabbed her by the hair, kicked her in the ribs, and spat on her as she lay on the ground.
Rita Incerti, a Supreme Court justice, opined that it was impossible to distinguish between Payne’s experience with the “insidious abuse” and her motivation for killing him.
“You were imprisoned in a violent, abusive, and cruel environment for more than ten years,” she stated.
The circumstances surrounding you and the family abuse you experienced at his hands cannot be separated from your behavior and regrettable decision to kill Mr. Payne.
The case, according to Justice Incerti, “calls out loudly” for her to exercise great kindness in determining the appropriate prison term.
She answered, “Your plea for mercy is strong.
Payne was given a maximum 16-year prison term, and 10 years must pass before she can apply for parole.
The first two years and seven months of Payne’s sentence have already passed.
