COMING SOON
In April 2012, 77-year-old Margaret Nicol Foran was found dead at her home in the Launceston suburb of Newnham. Her son, William John Foran, who had been staying with his mother in the weeks before her death, was subsequently charged with her murder. A coronial investigation later determined that Margaret died from asphyxia after being manually strangled and smothered by her son while he was suffering from an acute psychotic episode.
When the case reached the Supreme Court in Launceston in March 2013, the jury heard that Foran had been diagnosed with psychosis. He pleaded not guilty on the grounds of insanity. After deliberating for about an hour and a half, the jury found that Foran had committed the killing but was not guilty on the grounds of insanity. He was subsequently admitted to the Wilfred Lopes Centre, Tasmania’s secure mental health facility. The case is a particularly confronting example of the intersection between serious mental illness, criminal responsibility and an appalling tragedy within a Tasmanian family.
