Jury hears of ‘powder’ from bugging of accused
Police bugged the home and phone of the Wellington branch chairwoman of pro-euthanasia group Exit International, a jury has heard.
A woman was captured asking Susan Austen for help sourcing nembutal. A jury in the High Court at Wellington has heard nembutal was a suicide drug, along with pentobarbitone and pentobarbital.
Austen answered that she had been away, and had a ‘‘very successful trip’’.
Austen, 67, has pleaded not guilty to charges of aiding a suicide, and importing pentobarbitone.
Police bugged her home and phone in the Lower Hutt suburb of Maungaraki in October 2016. Excerpts were played to the jury.
Another woman was told: ‘‘I have one lot with your name on it.’’ The woman was grateful and said that would make her feel a little more at peace.
One woman who already had helium was ‘‘keen to get the other’’, Austen was told.
Austen arranged to meet one caller who said she would bring powder.
‘‘We can do it in the car,’’ Austen said.
When she was arrested in October 2016, she and another woman were in a car dividing up pentobarbitone powder.
Yesterday, a police officer agreed in court that the Waikanae woman who was with Austen was arrested at the time but not charged. Detective Constable Sam Mckenzie said the woman could only have been charged with possession of the drug, a much less serious offence than importing.
Her lawyer had also raised issues about her age and health. It was suggested she had some kind of dementia, and an interview with her suggested that was the case.
Also as part of the investigation, police found a woman in Petone had a bottle of pentobarbitone without evidence of importation. She was not charged.
Austen’s lawyer, Donald Stevens, QC, suggested there was an altercation when police tried to take the bottle. Mckenzie said he understood there was a standoff.
He agreed the woman’s daughter had to persuade her to hand it over. The woman insisted that she needed it.
One of the importing charges Austen faces was for a specific date in September 2016, but the other charge covered from March 2012 to October 2016.
Mckenzie said police alleged Austen imported pentobarbitone six times.
Pentobarbitone poisoning was the cause of death of Annemarie Treadwell, 77, who died in Wellington on June 6, 2016.
A friend of Austen’s, Lily Zhao, said she did not know Annemarie but knew she was a friend of Susan Austen, who she called Suzy. Austen sent her an email in February 2016 involving ‘‘Annemarie T’’.
The email talked about a package being intercepted by Customs. Zhao said she did not know what the package contained. She translated one email into Chinese for Austen and sent it to either Austen or Annemarie.
Austen’s trial is due to continue next week.