Murderer’s final insult to her grandpa

A TEENAGER who murdered her grandfather should be given an “appropriate” jail term, her father said yesterday.

Brittney Jade Dwyer, 19, of the Gold Coast, faced sentencing submissions after admitting to murdering Robert Whitwell, 81, in his Adelaide unit in August last year.

Dwyer’s father, Garry Dwyer, described his former father-in-law as a “great man who loved his family”.

He asked the court to impose an “appropriate” jail term on his daughter.

Tonya Dwyer — whose daughter killed her father — also provided a statement, saying that she had been a happy wife, mother and daughter until May 2 last year.

“(Now) I feel like I’m drowning in life,” she said.

The court heard Dwyer fabricated an eleventh-hour lie to excuse her crime.

Supreme Court Justice Kevin Nicholson heard Dwyer told a psychiatrist that her grandfather may have sexually molested her as a child — but she wasn’t sure.

Prosecutor Jim Pearce told the court “at one minute to midnight” Dwyer was having flashbacks about something her victim may or may not have done, despite never having raised this as a motive at any other point.

“It is just simply an invention designed to give her an explanation for why she acted as she did,” he said.

“Because the only other explanation is a premeditated, pre-planned, almost sociopathic killing.”

The case was then adjourned until after her co-accused, Bernadette Burns, has been tried for her alleged role in the killing. Dwyer pleaded guilty to the murder.