Originally Posted by Weekend Australian
THEY were found in each other's arms, a married couple of 55 years nestled beneath blankets and a doona in the bedroom of their Victorian home.
Bernard Rolfe hugged his wife, Janetta, who lay facing him.
It could have been a picture of any elderly couple resting at home except for two tragic things.
A gas bottle was next to the bed and a short rubber hose connected to its valve had been run over Mr Rolfe's hip and under his arm. And a suicide note was found in the pair's dining room, where they would have shared countless breakfasts, lunches and dinners together.
"I am sick of the meals on wheels, and other food cooked, they are tasteless and Janetta cannot eat them," the note read. "We don't want to be parted or put in a home. Janetta told me tonight there is only one way out. We have had a long happy life together and need peace - Bernard."
The Rolfes were discovered early on November 17 last year when a community care worker smelled gas after going to visit them at their Inverloch home on Victoria's southeast coast.
After repeatedly knocking, the carer called the authorities. Firefighters and ambulance officers arrived and found the couple in their bedroom.
Mrs Rolfe, 84, was dead and Mr Rolfe, 80, was unconscious. Paramedics administered oxygen to Mr Rolfe, who regained consciousness and was rushed to hospital. In the ambulance, he told paramedics: "Leave me alone. Let me go."
Yesterday, almost a year after they were found, Mr Rolfe pleaded guilty in the Victorian Supreme Court to the manslaughter of his wife of 55 years. His defence lawyer, Mark Rochford, said the now 81-year-old was suffering from depression and helplessness at the time of the suicide pact.
He said Mrs Rolfe had significant health issues - including Alzheimer's disease and heart problems - and Mr Rolfe was struggling to cope but did not want his wife to go into respite care.
Mr Rochford said prosecutors accepted it was a genuine suicide pact entered into by both Mr and Mrs Rolfe.
"This is a tragic case, your honour, in all the circumstances. It's a matter that was driven out of depression and desire not to be separated from his wife of a significant period of time," he told the plea hearing. "He accepts now that he should not have committed the offence ... he didn't want his wife to suffer and that was his motivation at the time."
Mr Rochford urged judge Philip Cummins to sentence his client to a wholly suspended sentence.
But Justice Cummins said he had to be careful about the messages he sent to the community about "voluntary death". "Are there not always issues, even in a clear case like this, of margins being moved? Shouldn't the court be conscious of the dangers of marginalisation?" he said. "(There are) a whole lot of moral arguments about the dangers of euthanasia ... to people who perhaps aren't as moral as the accused.
"What happens to a very elderly person who says I am just a burden ... I have got no future. What does the law do about them? ... No matter how sad and tragic the case ... the law and the court should not go down the path of voluntary death." He bailed Mr Rolfe to reappear on November 28 to be sentenced.
