Latest / The Front / Grief and a gold coffin: the legal drama engulfing a star footballer’s family

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Grief and a gold coffin: the legal drama engulfing a star footballer’s family · The Front

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  Speaker 1: From The Australian. Here's what's on the front. I'm Claire Harvey.
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  Speaker 1: It's Tuesday, December two, twenty twenty five. United Nations cops
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  Speaker 1: on the ground in the Pacific Islands. That's the dream
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  Speaker 1: Australia is pushing for. When it hosts the UN Chiefs
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  Speaker 1: of Police Summit in New York next year, Australian Federal
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  Speaker 1: Police Commissioner Chrissy Barrett will lead the push for a
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  Speaker 1: regional force to match China's power plays in the region
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  Speaker 1: and surging transnational crime. That story's live now at the
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  Speaker 1: Australian dot com AU. A car crash, an allegedly drunk
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  Speaker 1: driver and two families devastated. That's a story we're all
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  Speaker 1: used to. But our National Crime correspondent David Murray has
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  Speaker 1: been digging into a case that has thrown up all
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  Speaker 1: sorts of complexities and implications in this matter. The allegedly
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  Speaker 1: drunk driver is the mother of a superstar footballer. She was, also,
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  Speaker 1: according to her lawyers, living in her own world of
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  Speaker 1: grief induced fantasy where a dead child had come back
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  Speaker 1: to life. Now, her defense team wants the case treated
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  Speaker 1: not as dangerous driving or manslaughter, but a mental health episode.
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  Speaker 1: That's today's story. David Murray is the Australian's National crime correspondent. Dave,
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  Speaker 1: you're the national crime correspondent at a big national broadsheet.
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  Speaker 1: You don't often report on car crashes, but there was
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  Speaker 1: a car crash in Queensland in twenty twenty two that's
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  Speaker 1: taken on much greater significance than one might have thought
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  Speaker 1: at the time. Tell me what happened in that car crash.
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  Speaker 2: This was a particularly horrific crash in the Gold Coast Hintland.
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  Speaker 2: A family was traveling on a shopping trip when another
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  Speaker 2: car crossed onto the wrong side of the road. According
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  Speaker 2: to police, instruck them head on and three people in
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  Speaker 2: that car died, Susan Zimmer who was seventy years old, Stephanie,
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  Speaker 2: her daughter, who was thirty five, and doctor Chris Force
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  Speaker 2: at that Susan's apartment and he was seventy nine. This
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  Speaker 2: became a national story because the driver of the other
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  Speaker 2: vehicle of the black Mercedes, was Joan Tafua, the mother
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  Speaker 2: of the Brisbane Broncos star prop Painhass.
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  Speaker 1: Joan Tafua is a mother of ten who lived in
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  Speaker 1: a multimillion dollar property on the Gold Coast, she drove
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  Speaker 1: a Mercedes. She was immensely proud of her superstar footballer son,
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  Speaker 1: but according to papers filed in court, Joan Tofua was
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  Speaker 1: deeply troubled. She had spent years caring for one of
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  Speaker 1: her children, Chase, who was catastrophically injured in a car
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  Speaker 1: crash as a baby. He was just five months old.
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  Speaker 1: His spinal cord was severed and he was living with quadriplegia,
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  Speaker 1: reliant on ventilation and only able to move in a wheelchair.
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  Speaker 1: In twenty twenty, Chase died and that plunged Joan into
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  Speaker 1: deep grief, according to her lawyers. The lawyers say that
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  Speaker 1: in the leader to the December twenty twenty two car crash,
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  Speaker 1: she was spending hours lost in a dream world, wandering
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  Speaker 1: her neighborhood, imagining she was pushing Chase in his wheelchair.
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  Speaker 2: Her legal team says that evidence has emerged that just
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  Speaker 2: prior to this accident, she believed she was communicating with
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  Speaker 2: her deceased son. There's apparently text messages which goes to
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  Speaker 2: her saying that she was taking him out for walks
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  Speaker 2: in his wheelchair, and of course none of that could
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  Speaker 2: have been possible as he died more than a couple
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  Speaker 2: of years before this accident, and that is now leading
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  Speaker 2: the defense to say that there is a possible mental
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  Speaker 2: health defense and insanity defense and to have the case
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  Speaker 2: referred to the Mental Health Court in Queensland.
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  Speaker 1: You've reported that the defense's case is going to be
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  Speaker 1: that Joan Tafel was not of sound mind when she
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  Speaker 1: crashed into the other family. She had a moderately high
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  Speaker 1: blood alcohol reading. What significance does that have when it
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  Speaker 1: comes to the court considering whether or not it will
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  Speaker 1: hear a case that she was of unsound mind.
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  Speaker 2: The lawyers who work in the mental health court in
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  Speaker 2: Queensland told me that it definitely will be significant. It
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  Speaker 2: will be part of the case. It's a factor. She's
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  Speaker 2: been charged with mid range during driving and that means
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  Speaker 2: that she was between point one and point one five,
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  Speaker 2: so two to three times the legal limit. And in
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  Speaker 2: assessing whether Tafo was of sound mind at the time
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  Speaker 2: of the accident, if the mental health court assesses that
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  Speaker 2: intoxication played any role in her I guess inability to
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  Speaker 2: understand right from wrong, in her unsoundness of mind, they
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  Speaker 2: can't then proceed with this case as an unsound mind
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  Speaker 2: case as an insanity defense and it will be referred
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  Speaker 2: back to the Supreme Court to be dealt with as
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  Speaker 2: a criminal case. So that's one factor. The other part
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  Speaker 2: of it is that the Mental Health Court is looking
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  Speaker 2: at this case because of a referral from the defense,
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  Speaker 2: and what that usually means is that the defense has
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  Speaker 2: a psychiatric report which says that the person charged was
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  Speaker 2: of unsound mind or potentially was. But the Mental Health
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  Speaker 2: Court then can appoint its own experts to assess the person.
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  Speaker 2: So they will assess Joan Tafur if they've got a
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  Speaker 2: different opinion. If there's a contest of opinion, then that
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  Speaker 2: will then go to a contested hearing where factors such
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  Speaker 2: as intoxication come into it, and the court can decide
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  Speaker 2: that there is no unsoundness of mine defense there and
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  Speaker 2: refer it back to the Supreme Court for trial. The
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  Speaker 2: chargers here are very serious. There's three counts of manslaughter,
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  Speaker 2: each of those have a maximum sentence of life imprisonment,
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  Speaker 2: as well as that she's been charged with the drink
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  Speaker 2: driving offense, with evading police, unlicensed driving, and dangerous driving,
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  Speaker 2: so they are very high stakes.
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  Speaker 1: She was clearly living through a really difficult kind of
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  Speaker 1: grief when this accident happened, Joan Tafua. There are some
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  Speaker 1: photos that accompany your story on the Australian dot com
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  Speaker 1: dot Au Dave, that show the memorial or mausoleum the
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  Speaker 1: family had built for their late sun Chase. Can you
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  Speaker 1: just describe that for me?
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  Speaker 2: This was quite remarkable when these pictures first emerged. They
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  Speaker 2: were published on the front page of newspapers around the
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  Speaker 2: country a few years back, and that was with the
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  Speaker 2: permission of the family. The family had gained the authority
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  Speaker 2: from the local council to bring Chase's body to their
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  Speaker 2: house in accordance with Samoan culture. So they had done that,
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  Speaker 2: and he has a special mausoleum that's been constructed. It's
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  Speaker 2: quite elaborate. It's based partly on Chaser's love of all
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  Speaker 2: things Egyptian, and his body is in a gold coffin
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  Speaker 2: within that mausoleum and it overlooks the swimming pool the
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  Speaker 2: family home. It's essentially made him a permanent part of
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  Speaker 2: family life.
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  Speaker 1: So, Dave, on the surface, this would look to be
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  Speaker 1: a fairly sort of simple matter. Someone who is intoxicated
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  Speaker 1: is involved in a serious crash, very serious charges are
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  Speaker 1: laid relating to both the crash and to her level
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  Speaker 1: of intoxication. If the courts do allow her to proceed
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  Speaker 1: with a mental health defense, does that have any significance
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  Speaker 1: beyond this actual matter.
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  Speaker 2: Well, I think it's probably too early to say whether
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  Speaker 2: this case will have knock on effects for other cases.
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  Speaker 2: The mental health court is a very busy court. I
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  Speaker 2: think last financial year there were two hundred and fifty cases.
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  Speaker 2: That was a spike, about fifty more cases than they
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  Speaker 2: usually get. The court is dealing with backlogs, it's sitting
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  Speaker 2: more often. It's basically doing everything possible to speed things
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  Speaker 2: up because I'm told that this process could take at
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  Speaker 2: least a year. We'll just have to wait and see.
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  Speaker 2: We will get to see what happens in that mental
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  Speaker 2: health court to see what the ramifications are. I mean.
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  Speaker 2: The interesting thing about this is that it's now three
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  Speaker 2: years since this crash, and courts became quite frustrated across
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  Speaker 2: that time about why it was taking so long, particularly
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  Speaker 2: to get a psychiatric assessment. One magistrate said, you know,
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  Speaker 2: you'll presume to have sanity unless shown otherwise. But now
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  Speaker 2: the defense have these text messages. I think that is
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  Speaker 2: probably the change that has led to the defense taking
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  Speaker 2: this to the mental health court actually gone. And also,
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  Speaker 2: and it's taken some time to do this, but they
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  Speaker 2: recover material apparently from Strava, which is an exercise tracking
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  Speaker 2: app that helps corroborate her neandering walks as she said
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  Speaker 2: that she was having with her deceased son. That's part
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  Speaker 2: of the reason for the delay.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, and that delay has no doubt caused distress to
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  Speaker 1: the grieving family of the victims in this car crash.
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  Speaker 1: Chris Forwcett was a skin cancer specialist. He was seventy nine.
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  Speaker 1: His partner was Susan Zimmer, an accountant, and Susan's daughter, Stephanie,
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  Speaker 1: who was thirty five. Those families are as well as
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  Speaker 1: dealing with their grief at the loss of their relatives,
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  Speaker 1: they are also embroiled in their own dispute, aren't they.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah. Look, I mean this is again part of the
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  Speaker 2: knock on effects of a terrible crash like this. No
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  Speaker 2: one expects something like this to happen, and families aren't prepared.
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  Speaker 2: In this case, four of Chris force It's children from
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  Speaker 2: previous marriages have gone to the District Court in Queensland
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  Speaker 2: and asked for provision from Susan Zimmer's estate. That is
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  Speaker 2: involved taking Susan Zimmer's only surviving daughter from a previous
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  Speaker 2: marriage to court and arguing the case. You know, from
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  Speaker 2: reading those court documents appears to have been quite some
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  Speaker 2: tension there over this. You've got a lot of people
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  Speaker 2: who are grieving the loss of their loved ones and
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  Speaker 2: they're trying to sort out what's left behind in this case.
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  Speaker 2: As you said, Dr Forcett was a skin cancer specialist,
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  Speaker 2: and his children say they believe that, due to his
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  Speaker 2: risky profession, that most of his assets would actually be
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  Speaker 2: in Susan Zimmer's name, And so now they're going through
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  Speaker 2: the process of trying to work out, Okay, how do
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  Speaker 2: we resolve how do we split this estate between the
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  Speaker 2: surviving family members. I mean, the toll on these family
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  Speaker 2: members is quite significant. Two of the children of Chris
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  Speaker 2: Fawcett and also Susan Zimmer's daughter have taken Joan Tafu
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  Speaker 2: and the insurer I Limited to court seeking damages for
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  Speaker 2: their mental I guess, you know, suffering their pain, their losses,
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  Speaker 2: financial losses. As a result of this. They're multimillion dollar
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  Speaker 2: cases that are being also fought by the insurer, who
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  Speaker 2: says that those claims are excessive.
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  Speaker 1: Coming up the very different legal drama involving the father
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  Speaker 1: of pain Hearse. Pain Hears is someone who's of course
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  Speaker 1: known to rugby league fans as a phenomenal player, an
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  Speaker 1: extremely talented individual. But what a tragic backstory, hasn't he
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  Speaker 1: His father is caught up in trouble with the police.
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  Speaker 1: Let's just briefly recap what's going on with Payn House's father.
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  Speaker 2: Payinn Haus's father, Gregor, is currently locked up in the Philippines.
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  Speaker 2: His release is pending. He was arrested as part of
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  Speaker 2: a drugs investigation, accused of involvement in drug smuggling in Indonesia.
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  Speaker 2: He's had a couple of wins lately. Of course, the
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  Speaker 2: stakes there are extremely high. Indonesia has the death penalty
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  Speaker 2: when it comes to drug importations. They've apparently taken that
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  Speaker 2: off the table as far as Gregor goes. But yes,
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  Speaker 2: he has had some wins. The Court of Appeals in
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  Speaker 2: the Philippines have only this month said that he should
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  Speaker 2: be released. The INTERPOL, the international policing agency, has withdrawn
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  Speaker 2: a red notice and so he's currently pending release. Waiting
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  Speaker 2: for that to happen, and we'll see what happens there.
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  Speaker 2: Meanwhileyne's mother, Joan Tafu, is currently in custody as well,
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  Speaker 2: and so what that has meant is that pain has
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  Speaker 2: actually stepped up and he has taken on some of
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  Speaker 2: the parenting roles for his younger siblings, his brothers. He's
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  Speaker 2: looking after them while he's raising his own young family.
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  Speaker 1: You cover courts and crime all the time, Dave, What
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  Speaker 1: does this case tell you about maybe why things take
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  Speaker 1: so long to be resolved these days?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean they say, you're justice delayed is justice denied,
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  Speaker 2: and it's always unfortunate when you see cases that stretched out. Recently,
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  Speaker 2: we had another case in Queensland that was ten years
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  Speaker 2: before it eventually was thrown out. I mean, that's just
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  Speaker 2: too long. The courts recognize that they want to expedite
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  Speaker 2: cases as much as they can, but you know, while
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  Speaker 2: keeping it fair for the defense, for the victims, for
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  Speaker 2: everyone involved, you know, it is very frustrating. I think
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  Speaker 2: it extends the pain of everyone involved when these matters
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  Speaker 2: can't be resolved quickly. From what I can see, the
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  Speaker 2: courts in this case have been trying to make it
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  Speaker 2: go ahead to progress quicker than it has. Unfortunately, this
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  Speaker 2: process will now by the looks of it, take another
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  Speaker 2: whole year. You can only hope that the courts continue
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  Speaker 2: to get the resources and then put those resources into
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  Speaker 2: turning these cases around as quickly as they possibly can
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  Speaker 2: for everyone involved.
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  Speaker 1: David Murray is The Australian's National Crime correspondent. You can
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  Speaker 1: read this story now at the Australian dot com dot
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  Speaker 1: au