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Wife who made glass lunches
Wife who made glass lunches avoids jail
Wife who made glass lunches avoids jail
A vengeful wife who tried to harm her cheating husband by sprinkling crushed glass on his lunches has avoided imprisonment in Tasmania.
Hobart Centrelink manager Lynette Quessy, 50, who is back living with her husband, was sentenced in the state's Supreme Court to a suspended nine-month jail term by Justice Shan Tennent.
Quessy pleaded guilty just before going to trial last month to one count of administering a poison and four counts of attempting to administer a poison.
The court was told she had used a meat tenderiser to ground up glass from a fluorescent tube in her kitchen and it was kept on the top shelf of a pantry until needed.
Then, blended with butter, the glass was served five times in sandwiches and a biscuit treat over two months to November 2007.
Her husband's affair after 20 years of marriage was discovered three years earlier, in 2004.
However, they remained living together in separate rooms of their Hobart home for the sake of their children.
It wasn't until a property dispute arose between them in late 2007 that her husband Tim Nash chipped his tooth on a chicken sandwich.
A week later, he noticed what looked like rock salt on his biscuits.
The court was told Mr Nash, who escaped any serious injury, realised it was glass and again found fragments in his sandwich the next day.
Curious, he found the crushed glass in a Tupperware-type container in the pantry and started keeping his lunches in a freezer in his garage for analysis.
The court heard Mr Nash called police after he found his wife's handwritten note saying: "Q - at death what happens to transfer of property?"
Quessy was soon after arrested at her workplace.
In sentencing, Justice Tennent said Mr Nash was fortunate that he became suspicious when he did.
"You admitted that you wanted to hurt your husband ... and that revenge was a thought in your mind," Justice Tennent said.
Justice Tennent said Quessy's explanation that she wanted the sandwiches to make him ill enough to force him to see a GP for his drinking was "bizarre".
"It could have resulted in internal laceration and bleeding," she said.
Justice Tennent said Quessy's thoughts were clearly disorganised at the time of her arrest.
But the depression Quessy claimed as a result of the affair was not severe, as claimed, Justice Tennent said.
Mr Nash was rightfully frightened after discovering Quessy's note about financial arrangements after his death, she said.
However, Justice Tennent said Quessy, a charity worker, was unlikely to reoffend and was previously of exemplary character.
Justice Tennent noted Mr Nash had lifted an apprehend violence order against his wife in March, allowing her to return home after he had testified that he no longer feared her.
A silent Quessy was shepherded out of the Hobart Supreme Court past waiting media by 12 supporters just before lunchtime.
***I cant beleive that she not only got away with it, but they are living together again??
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Originally Posted by Bogart
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