A Supreme Court justice has handed down her decision on whether an 84-year-old Creswick man killed his wife on Christmas night in 2019.
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Justice Lesley Taylor on Thursday morning said she found Edward Allan Rowen committed the murder of his 78-year-old wife, Rosalie Rowen, at their Creswick home.
Rowen bludgeoned his wife in the head 20 times with what was believed to be a solid wooden elephant and later told police 'he lost it'.
Mrs Rowen was flown to the Royal Melbourne Hospital after the assault between 8.30pm and 9.45pm and died in the early hours of the next morning.
The couple had been married 56 years and had four children together.
Rowen's defence counsel said there had been no reported history of family violence and Rowen had no criminal history.
A judge-only special hearing for the case was held in March, after Rowen was found unfit to stand trial.
The court was told Rowen was not able to provide an account of the offence or instructions to his defence counsel due to his mental impairment, likely Alzheimer's disease.
Under the Crimes Mental Impairment Act, Justice Taylor on Thursday declared Rowen liable to supervision.
This means a different supervision regime to the usual sentencing process will be imposed.
Rowen has been remanded in custody since the offence date and will remain there until a decision is made on an appropriate location for his supervision.
This could be a psychogeriatric nursing home on a non-custodial order, for example.
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A report on available services and on Rowen's mental state will be prepared and provided to the court before a decision is made.
Crown prosecutor David Glynn told the court supervision of Rowen was in the best interests of the community.
"Mr Rowen has killed his wife for reasons which can't be explained and probably couldn't be explained at the time," he said.
Defence barrister Tim Marsh said he was anxious to avoid the indefinite remand of Rowen in custody.
"Options such as the Monash psychogeriatric unit ought to be explored," he said.
Seven prosecution witnesses gave evidence to the court in March, including Rowen's daughter, a neighbour who tended to Mrs Rowen, a passerby and attending police officers.
The court heard Rowen, his wife and some family members had attended a Christmas dinner earlier in the evening where Rowen had consumed alcohol and became aggressive.
Rowen's daughter said her father had drunk beer and there was an argument about him consuming jelly shots.
But she said there was no anger or tension between her father and mother when they left to return home.
Witness and neighbour Rebecca Pascoe was at home with her partner and his family for Christmas dinner when one of the family members said they could hear a man yelling outside.
She said Rowen came up to her and hugged her when she went outside and said 'you need to help me'.
"I said what is wrong? He said he killed his wife," Mr Pascoe told the court.
"He said he hit her across the head and he thinks he killed her."
Ms Pascoe said she went into Rowen's house and saw a small wooden elephant statue covered in blood and hair on the kitchen table.
She said she saw Mrs Rowen on the ground, sitting against the wall in a pool of blood in the lounge room with blood gushing from her head.
Police officer Senior Constable Jason Allison handcuffed Rowen and left him with witness Miles Tait while he secured the scene and attended to Mrs Rowen.
"Rowen asked if we reckoned they would hang him for what he had done and said 'do you have a gun? You should shoot me here'," he said.
"He said he was furious at the ladies for telling him not to drink and wanted to drink more.
"He said his wife started pestering him about his behaviour that day and he flew into a rage, grabbed the wooden elephant, she started screaming and he must have hit her about 20 times before she stopped crying."
Police body-worn camera footage played to the court revealed Rowen saying to officers at the scene: 'I was trying to kill her. I told her I would... I just lost it.'
Forensic pathologist Joanna Glengarry who performed Mrs Rowen's autopsy gave evidence to the court that blunt force head injuries caused her death.
She said the greatest concentration of injuries were to the head and face, with facial fractures, bruising, skull fractures, bleeding on the brain and bruising to the brain.
Dr Glengarry said it was 'entirely plausible' the injuries she observed were caused by the weapon Rowen had described to police, the small solid elephant statue.
The case was adjourned to a date to be fixed to allow time for the psychiatric report and report on available services to be prepared.
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