15 Feb 2018

Euthanasia advocate's emails scrutinised in trial

From Morning Report, 8:54 am on 15 February 2018

A series of emails which the Crown says were sent by a Wellington euthanasia advocate to drug suppliers in China and Mexico have come in for close scrutiny in the High Court in Wellington. Susan Austen is accused of assisting the suicide of Annemarie Treadwell in 2016, and illegally importing the controlled drug, Pentobarbitone. Ms Treadwell death in 2016 was not initially thought to be suspicious, but after a suicide note was discovered in her home, a postmortem was held and it was found she'd died from Pentobarbitone toxicity. RNZ court reporter Anne Marie May is covering the trial and joins us with the details.