Wife murder verdict scrapped

Hilton Shaw has been acquitted on his wife's murder.

Hilton Shaw has been acquitted on his wife's murder.

Published Jul 20, 2011

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Hilton Shaw, the man who was found guilty of the murder of his wife, Susan, on their remote estate at Fort Nottingham on June 3, 2007, has been acquitted of the murder after an appeal before a full Bench of the Pietermaritzburg Court.

The unanimous judgment was handed down on Tuesday by Judges Dhaya Pillay, Graham Lopes and Acting Judge President Chiman Patel, who concluded that the most probable explanation was that Susan committed suicide.

Shaw was granted leave to appeal against his conviction after he had petitioned the president of the Supreme Court of Appeal in November, 2009.

He appealed against his murder conviction and not against his 12-year jail sentence.

The Bench rejected the judgment of the trial judge, Vivienne Niles-Duner, who convicted Shaw on circumstantial evidence.

Judge Niles-Duner rejected the possibility that Susan Shaw had committed suicide or been attacked by an intruder, as was suggested by Shaw’s defence in the trial, and concluded that the only possible inference to be drawn was that Shaw had the direct intention to kill his wife.

She found Shaw, 59, to be a “highly intelligent” and sophisticated person who had considered every aspect and had a “ready answer” for all questions raised in the case.

Evidence revealed that Susan Shaw bled to death from a “contact” bullet wound fired through three layers of clothing directly into the area just above her right armpit. She was found lying face down on the veranda.

Shaw initially told the court that he believed his wife had committed suicide, but later conceded it was more likely that an intruder had shot her.

In a lengthy judgment, the appeal judges accepted the suicide theory, and concluded that there was reasonable doubt as to Shaw’s guilt, and as a credible witness, his version that he did not shoot his wife must be accepted.

In his evidence at trial, Shaw had said that Susan had been depressed in the days before her death following an argument with her former mother-in-law, who was caring for Susan’s children from a previous relationship.

Shaw said she was also stressed about a meeting with her attorneys and Vodacom to discuss a damages claim that she was pursuing against the huge conglomerate.

Shaw revealed that this was in relation to a Vodashop franchise that his wife had owned. However, the agreement was terminated by Vodacom, which accused her of fraud.

Susan was charged with fraud and arrested in July, 2003.

She was acquitted of all 620 counts of fraud against her in January, 2006, and was suing Vodacom for millions.

He said that it was after her arrest that his wife first tried to take her own life by overdosing on prescription medication.

She again tried to commit suicide eight months later.

Shaw told the court that on the day of her death he had left the house to check his cellphone messages. Cellphone reception could only be obtained 4km away from the house.

He said that when he got back home, he saw his wife lying face down on the veranda.

Medical evidence also revealed that Susan was “heavily intoxicated” at the time of her death, with the equivalent of 0.30g of alcohol in her blood, implying that she must have consumed about 1.5 litres of wine.

No primer residue was found on Shaw’s hands.

The appeal judges found that Shaw had been a consistent witness, who did not contradict himself, and whose testimony was corroborated by cellphone records, photographic exhibits and medical evidence.

“Overall, Shaw’s evidence is consistent both within the content and structure of his own evidence and with the objective facts,” the judgment reads.

The judges said that on the facts, many permutations of possible inferences arose to “fire the imagination of any murder mystery writer”. However, speculating about facts not proved was firmly disallowed.

The judges found that the intruder theory was weak, as nothing was missing from the house, not even the firearm used to shoot Susan. Also, there were no signs of a third party having entered the premises.

They concluded that Susan had a history of suicide attempts and suffered from depression, a condition that was serious enough for her to have received medication and professional treatment.

She was a mother of two teenage sons from whom she was unhappily separated.

Susan was also menstruating, and was found to be intoxicated and “could have been more emotional than usual”.

“The trial court found that shooting herself once in the shoulder did not signal a suicidal intention. Having regard to her two previous suicide attempts, it is an open question as to whether she really intended to end her life. As with her two previous attempts, when Shaw rescued her, she knew that he would return soon to save her. In the circumstances, the suicide theory is a real possibility.”

The judges found that although shooting herself in the right shoulder would have been awkward, it was not impossible.

Shaw declined to speak to the media on Tuesday.

Susan’s family could not be reached for comment. - Daily News

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