Family of murdered woman call for improved surveillance in aged care facilities
The daughter of an elderly woman murdered at a Newcastle aged care facility has called for better video surveillance in nursing homes.
On Wednesday, 29-year-old Garry Steven Davis was found guilty of murdering residents Gwen Fowler, 83, and Ryan Kelly, 80, in 2013.
Ms Fowler was injected with a large dose of insulin she did not need.
Her eldest daughter Gail said she hoped the tragedy would lead to improved monitoring of elderly patients.
"It's a bit like the one where the [Quakers Hill] nursing home was burnt down," she said.
"I believe that they made sure that there should be smoke detectors in nursing homes and they gave them a certain amount of time to do that.
"So hopefully CCTV cameras will be installed because they should be in many more places."
Gail said the mystery behind her mother's death could have been solved more quickly.
"I know already that when the judge was going through some of the plans of the nursing home he came across anomalies," she said.
"I would and my family would have liked to have seen more [CCTV cameras] because that would have saved a lot of time.
"They would have been able to see who went in and out of mum's room and when."
Justice Robert Hulme also found Davis guilty of attempting to kill 91-year-old Audrey Manuael.
All victims were given shots of insulin at the SummitCare Nursing home at Wallsend.
Justice Hulme said text messages, predicting the deaths of aged care residents, played a role in him determining that Davis was responsible.
The text message conversations included the question "who's next?", and a claim that things come in threes was crucial to the crown's circumstantial case against Davis.
He said references to the imminent demise of two of them in text messages also supported the crown's case, in that they were indicative of the accused knowing that they had both received injections of insulin.
Gail Fowler said she felt a responsibility to bring the issue of neglect at the nursing home to the fore.
"We know that residents who were capable of speaking for themselves were just absolutely talked over," she said.
Miss Fowler said she was looking forward to getting on with her own life.