NSW: Parents relieved at sentence for son's killing

AAP General News (Australia)
04-04-2007
NSW: Parents relieved at sentence for son's killing

By Kim Arlington

SYDNEY, April 4 AAP - A Sydney couple released on good behaviour bonds after killing
their disabled son were enormously relieved at the decision, their barrister said today.

Prosecutors had called for jail terms for Margaret and Raymond Sutton, who were sentenced
in the NSW Supreme Court after pleading guilty to the manslaughter of their 28-year-old
son, Matthew.

However, Justice Graham Barr placed the pair on five-year good behaviour bonds, saying
there was no community interest in seeing them jailed.

The Suttons, who suffered from depression and stress, were affected by an "abnormality
of mind" at the time of Matthew's death, Justice Barr said.

It would be "cruel" to imprison them, as the pair depended on each other for support
and could only receive the psychiatric treatment they needed in the community, Justice
Barr said.

Matthew Sutton, who was blind from birth and intellectually disabled, died at his parents'
home at Leonay, on Sydney's western outskirts, on April 22, 2001.

The following day he was to have undergone surgery that would likely have robbed him
of his hearing and sense of taste.

In a previous statement to the court, Mrs Sutton asked: "How could we subject our precious
son to what was ahead?"

"He had been through so much ... he was such a brave soul.

"So with all the love we had for Matti, we borrowed from his strength and courage and
released him from any more pain and suffering."

The court heard Mrs Sutton gave her son a sedative before her husband - in his own
words - "released Matthew from this world".

A post-mortem failed to establish what killed him.

Justice Barr said the couple had devoted their lives to caring for their son and "even
the last act was one born of love for him".

"They believed that what they did was right. Of course, it was not."

However, the judge said "nothing that the court can do by way of sentence can add to
the offenders' suffering".

"The need for further punishment is spent," he said.

Mr Sutton, 63, sat with his arm around his 60-year-old wife during the judgment.

Both were embraced by tearful family and friends after learning their fate.

The Suttons did not comment outside court but their barrister, Tony Bellanto, QC, said
the decision was "an enormous relief".

"They'll live with what's happened for the rest of their life, of course, and that's
a sentence in itself," he told reporters.

"They've been living with stress, depression, hardship for 30-odd years now.

"They want to get on with their life ... and live for the memory of Matthew, who will
always be with them."

It was an exceptional and emotional case, Mr Bellanto said, but "fortunately it was
a judgment filled with compassion and understanding and mercy".

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KEYWORD: SUTTON LEAD (PIX AVAILABLE)

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