Vic: Man who killed son and burnt wife sentenced for 26 years

AAP General News (Australia)
12-06-2000
Vic: Man who killed son and burnt wife sentenced for 26 years

By Stuart Walsh

MELBOURNE, Dec 6 AAP - An Australian air force sergeant, so obsessed with the idea
of rejoining his American lover that he decided to kill his baby son and wife by torching
their bed, was today jailed for 26 years.

The Supreme Court in Melbourne heard that 37-year-old Mark John Smith's 10-week old
son Adrian was incinerated in the blaze.

His then wife, Nicole, was so badly burned her right arm had to be amputated below the elbow.

Smith, who must serve a minimum non-parole term of 22 years, was charged following
a lengthy investigation involving the FBI.

He was arrested in Jabiru, in the Northern Territory, in October last year, almost
four years after the death of his son at Smith's outer Melbourne home in Hoppers Crossing
on October 4, 1995.

Supreme Court judge Justice Frank Vincent told Smith: "You are, I consider, a calculating
individual who, having decided what he wanted, was prepared to let nothing stand in the
way of the achievement of his desires - not the life of his child and certainly not that
of a wife, of whom he had grown tired."

Justice Vincent said that Smith, a computer expert with a masters degree in electrical
engineering, almost succeeded with his cold-blooded plan.

But information provided by his previously unsuspecting wife was enough to launch an
extensive investigation.

Justice Vincent said Smith's crime, in which he callously and deliberately caused his
own son to be burned to death, was a particularly heinous example of murder.

Smith impregnated a cloth with an anaesthetic, probably ether, covered his wife's face
as she lay in bed at about 7am (AEDT) and held her down until she lost consciousness.

He then placed the baby next to her and set fire to the bed using an aromatherapy burner.

Justice Vincent said Smith then set off for work at the nearby Laverton air force base
as if nothing abnormal had happened and pretended to be devastated when given the news
of his son's death and his wife's injuries.

Weeks later, in the following December, Smith travelled to Orlando, Florida, to rejoin
his mistress, Donna Lee Wilkinson.

He had met her while on an RAAF posting as a computer specialist between 1991-94, working
on a project to develop a new weapons system for the F1-11 aircraft.

Smith and Ms Wilkinson came back to Australia on a visit in March 1996.

He was prevented from leaving again on a Family Court injunction and was living with
his father in Jabiru when he was arrested.

During the trial, Smith's defence counsel, Stratton Langslow, said the fire had been
started accidentally by the aromatherapy burner, which had been lit by Smith before he
left for work and was left on a bedside chest of drawers.

Smith did not give evidence.

Justice Vincent said he was satisfied Smith had developed a powerful, obsessive attachment
to Donna Wilkinson.

Rather than leave his wife and child and be seen to have abandoned them or be required
to provide for them, Smith decided to "remove them entirely from the picture" in a way
which would attract no disgrace, Justice Vincent said.

Outside the court, Nicole's father Forest Taylor said he thought the sentence was fair.

He added: "I needed to look at him (Smith) today - I needed to see him walk from the
dock with him knowing what he has got to look forward to."

Smith pleaded not guilty to murder and attempted murder.

AAP sew/clr/gmw/de

KEYWORD: SMITH NIGHTLEAD

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