A former psychiatrist turned “cold-blooded, delusional” assassin who murdered a state’s top health director says he should be allowed to appeal his conviction because the water in prison is making him sick.
On Wednesday, convicted murderer Jean Eric Gassy asked a court to grant an appeal of his 2009 conviction for the murder of Dr Margaret Tobin, because he is being mistreated in custody, with the water supply causing him vision loss.
In 2002, Gassy, a former Sydney-based psychiatrist, executed a plan to murder Dr Tobin, who was the head of mental health services in South Australia at the time.
Gassy was deregistered in 1997 after being diagnosed with a delusional disorder and for failing to comply with certain conditions on his registration.
Dr Tobin, who was formerly the director of mental health at the Southern Sydney Area Health Service, had requested an evaluation of Gassy, which led him to believe she had been conspiring against him to stop him working as a therapist.
Subsequently, she became the first person on his hit-list, along with five other members of the medical community.
His first attempt at murdering Dr Tobin came five months before her death in South Australia, when she was in Brisbane for a conference.
He travelled to the Brisbane Convention Centre, armed with a gun, but abandoned the plans after he dropped the weapon on the concrete outside the building.
On October 14, 2002 – the day of Dr Tobin’s death – Gassy travelled from Sydney to Adelaide to fulfil his months-long plan.
He disguised himself and followed her into the elevator of the SA Health building on Hindmarsh Square in the Adelaide CBD.
As the doors opened and Dr Tobin walked out to her floor, Gassy shot her at close range and left the building, removing his disguise as he left.
During his criminal trial, Gassy maintained he was in no way delusional and represented himself before a jury.
He was found guilty and was jailed for life with a non-parole period of 34 years.
Representing himself, Gassy told the Court of Appeal on Wednesday that the judge in his murder trial erred in not giving him a more lenient sentence because he didn’t take into account his “positive” attributes.
“At trial, his honour was not aware of positive aspects of my character which should have attracted leniency,” Gassy said.
“I also denied myself the opportunity of being heard on sentencing, and that in effect, I made a legally incompetent decision not to make sentencing submissions.”
He went on to allege that before he was deregistered in 1997, Dr Tobin had “tried to kill him in 1994.”
He further alleged that a woman he had slept with at the time had been sent as an “agent of Tobin” to give him AIDS.
The court on Wednesday dismissed the allegations and told Gassy he was not able to present new evidence at this stage.
Gassy then claimed the water supply in custody is making him ill, and his eyesight is suffering as a result.
“You stopped drinking water and started drinking soft drink and your symptoms as a result improved,” President Livesey read from Gassy’s affidavit.
“Yes. As a result of the stuff they put in the water, I lost my sight,” Gassy said.
“It’s caused me grievous bodily harm, it’s a technical assault causing grievous bodily harm because I was infected with a virus.
He previously claimed prison officers had been “trying to kill him” during his time in custody, and that a medical condition was not being adequately managed.
Gassy’s current non-parole period will see him eligible for release in 2032.
The Court of Appeal will reconvene next Thursday to hand down their decision.
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