Bizarre Emily Perry poisoning crime case closed with death of alleged victim, husband Ken Perry
Kenneth Perry, who stood by his wife after she was convicted then cleared of attempting to poison him to death, has died, bringing to an end one of South Australias most bizarre crime dramas. Source: News Limited
THE final curtain in one of the most bizarre crime dramas in SAs history the Perry case has come down.
The last living character in the high-profile case, Kenneth Perry, passed away this week two years after the death of his wife Emily, 85, who was convicted then sensationally cleared of attempting to murder him by poisoning him with arsenic.
Mr Perry, 84, steadfastly stood by his wife during her 1980 trial for attempting to murder him and then again four years later when she was charged by Victorian police with murdering a former husband.
Maintaining his love and support for her, he repeatedly said he was astounded by the actions of police and found their ridiculous accusations against his wife almost laughable.
Mrs Perry was the focus of one of the nations most sensational trials after she was charged with attempting to kill her husband using arsenic-based weed killer.
Police claimed she gradually poisoned Mr Perry between July and November 1978 and February and October 1979. At her Supreme Court trial, the jury heard her second husband, Albert Otto Haag, a 35-year-old Victorian detective constable, died in 1961 of arsenic poisoning, followed by her brother, Francis Montgomerie, who died from arsenic poisoning a year later.
In 1970, Mrs Perrys defacto, John Alfred Jameson, also known as Jim Duncan, died of a drug overdose. Police told the jury it was possible he had also suffered from the effects of arsenic poisoning before his death.
It was alleged that, in the cases of Mr Haag and Mr Jameson, Mrs Perry stood to collect sizeable amounts in life insurance. Eventually, she was found guilty of the attempted murder of Mr Perry and was sentenced to 15 years jail.
Nine months later, her conviction was quashed after a High Court appeal when the justices ruled prosecutors had been wrong in using the similar fact evidence of the other three deaths to secure a conviction.
One judge also said the evidence used in her trial ``revealed an appalling departure from acceptable standards of forensic science. Her conviction was quashed, but prosecutors declined to prosecute her again because they had no direct evidence she had administered the poison.
In a major development in the case two years later, Mrs Perry was charged with the murder of Mr Haag but the case was withdrawn after the deaths of several key witnesses.
Veteran SA homicide detective Bill Cook, who arrested Mrs Perry in 1979 with his then partner David Florance who is now deceased, yesterday said he remained convinced of her guilt despite the High Court quashing her conviction.
I have no doubt in my mind she attempted to murder Kenneth Perry for monetary gain, he said.
I would not have arrested her if I did not think so. We liaised very closely with the Crown at the time, it was very intricate. There was sufficient evidence to put her on trial.
He also believed there were too many coincidences for the other deaths surrounding her not to be questionable.
The retired Senior Sergeant, now 82, said he remembers the Perry case vividly because it was one of the more complex investigations police had undertaken at the time.
At that stage is was probably one of the most protracted and complicated cases we had.
It was something we never had before, its nature, it was unique.
He remembers Mr Perry and his unfaltering loyalty to his wife during his investigation.
Initially he was quite friendly and was cooperating with us, including providing hair samples so they could be forensically analysed as part of our brief, he said.
I remember him showing us the organs that he used to repair, he was a very clever man.
When we started looking at things very closely he became very anti-police of course. He never changed his view that she did not do it, not once.
Mr Cook said the case was extremely stressful, especially the failed civil damages case the Perrys launched against the government, himself and Florance after the conviction was quashed.
The Perry family declined to comment when approached by the Sunday Mail.
