Mum blasted her blind husband in the face with shotgun while he slept
The rural property tucked behind tall pine trees in Murrumbateman in New South Wales was the home of Dale and Mark Vella. Their 22-year-old daughter, Georgia, lived in a converted stable block nearby. Dale, 54, and Mark had been married for 23 years. A degenerative eye condition had left 52-year-old Mark legally blind, although he could see well enough to work as a farmer.
Life hadn’t been easy for the pair, who had struggled with finances over the years. They had lost a daughter to brain cancer when
she was only three, and Dale had undergone a double mastectomy and chemotherapy after developing breast cancer.
Monday 9 August, 2021, was a regular day on the farm. One of the family dogs had gone missing and Dale and Georgia had ridden around on a quad bike until it was found. The firewood was stacked, and that evening the family sat down to dinner with David Borg, Mark’s lifelong friend who lived with them.
Mark had cooked, as he often did, but Dale seemed to be off her food and told her daughter she wasn’t feeling well. After watching TV, the household went to bed.
At about 10pm, David was woken by a loud bang followed by a pounding on his bedroom door. It was Dale. “I’ve shot him,” she shouted. “I was going to shoot myself but I shot him.”
Man in 30s dies after being stabbed in park sparking police probe
She urged David to call the emergency services, which he did as he ran to rouse Georgia. Their conversation was recorded, when he connected to the operator. “Your mum’s shot your dad,” he told her. Georgia thought David was joking and took the phone from him, only to realise that a dispatcher was at the other end dealing with the emergency.
Mark Vella with his daughter GeorgiaShe began to sob on reaching the house, and screamed when she saw her father lying on the bed with a gunshot wound to his head. “Oh my God,” she cried. “Why did you do this?” At one point, Dale replied, “He can’t hurt us any more.” Georgia was stunned by the response. “He wasn’t hurting us,” she insisted.
Apparently, Dale had taken a double-barrelled shotgun from the gun safe earlier that day and put it in her bedroom. She had loaded both barrels and hid spare cartridges in a slipper. Then, while Mark was sleeping, she positioned the loaded gun within 30cm of his right eye and pulled the trigger.
Georgia later said she had “tortured herself” over what she could have done to save her father. But Dale fired at point-blank range and Mark died instantly. In a police interview, Dale said she had endured years of psychological abuse at the hands of her husband and said that she had intended on taking her own life that night, not his.
Earlier that day, Dale, who also has two sons from a previous marriage, recorded a video on her phone in which she told her children, “Sorry guys, I just can’t live like this any more. I’ve let him abuse you emotionally for years… I’ve tried leaving, but he doesn’t care about anybody but himself.” However, there was no evidence to show Mark had ever been abusive.
Claims of abuse
Dale was charged with murder, to which she pleaded not guilty. Her lawyers argued she had “substantial mental impairment” at the time of the killing and argued that she should have been charged with manslaughter rather than murder.
At the two-week trial this year, there was no question as to whether Dale had pulled the trigger. But there were doubts about her understanding of her actions. Dale claimed she couldn’t remember anything about the shooting until she was led from the house by police.
But the prosecution pointed out that she had told David to call an ambulance – a sign she knew what she had done and was of sound mind. They said the shot was “deliberate, carefully chosen, focused”. The paramedic confirmed that Dale had not been in a state of clinical shock after the killing.
Three days after the shooting, Dale told a prison officer that her husband had been snoring before she shot him. But how could she have remembered that if she was suffering from amnesia?
The defence claimed that Dale had been subjected to “years of psychological abuse by her husband” and was afraid of his temper. However there was no evidence of such psychological abuse by Mark, and the claim was rejected by the couple’s family and friends.
Russian model killed after calling Putin a 'psychopath' was strangled by her ex
The prosecution said that if Dale’s original plan had been to kill herself, it was strange that she’d had four cartridges with the gun, including the two which were hidden in the slipper. “She knows what she did in that bedroom,” they said.
Haunted by the murder
The emergency call was played in court and Georgia’s distress was clear to hear. Even after she’d seen the extent of her father’s injuries, she’d wanted to believe he could be saved. The jury at New South Wales Supreme Court found Dale guilty of murder. In July, she was sentenced to 24 years in prison with the chance of parole after 18 years.
The judge, Justice Helen Wilson, said that Dale had intended to kill her husband and there was no evidence to show that he had been abusive. She also said the court did not accept the “demonisation of Mr Vella”.
“What occurred on the late night of 9 August, 2021, is clearly established by the evidence given at trial,” she said. “Why it occurred is much less clear and may never be known.”
That disbelief was echoed by a devastated Georgia, who in an emotional statement described her father as a loving man and a “larrikin who loved a good joke and a muck around”. She said he would have spoilt her two children, but had never got the chance to meet them.
“His love would’ve been unconditional and it’s not fair that they will never be able to feel that love,” said Georgia, who got married last year. “Every time I close my eyes to go to sleep or think about my father, the image of him after the shooting is etched in my mind,” she said. “This can never be undone because of the actions of my mother. I don’t understand how she could have done this. I hate what she has done to all of our lives.”
David Borg said he was haunted by the murder and had called the ambulance knowing his friend would not survive. “I will never have another friend like Mark,” he said.
Read more similar news:
Comments:
comments powered by Disqus
