NSW: Sydney man confesses to murder of environmentalist mum
03 Nov 2008 5:57 PMNSW: Sydney man confesses to murder of environmentalist mum
By Katelyn John
SYDNEY, Nov 3 AAP - Moments before he was due to face trial, a man today confessed to murdering his elderly mother, a feisty environmentalist found dead in her NSW south coast home.
Adam Patrick Owens, 33, of Cremorne on Sydney's north shore, was charged with murdering Doris Owens, 69, between September 6 and 9, 2006.
The body of the woman, known as an environmental campaigner in the seaside village of Swanhaven, near Sussex Inlet on the NSW south coast, was not found until September 12, 2006.
Ms Owens, who also had a home in Sydney, had attracted threats in her work as secretary of the Swanhaven Progress Association, which campaigned to preserve the natural environment on the shore around the village Swan Lake.
Owens, a former political adviser and the younger of her two sons, was arrested over her murder by homicide detectives in Sydney's CBD in March last year.
In June, he pleaded not guilty to murder, but in the NSW Supreme Court today, just as his murder trial was due to begin, he changed his plea.
"I'm guilty," he told Justice Lucy McCallum.
Owens showed no emotion as he stood in the dock to read his plea and sat looking at his hands for the rest of the proceedings.
"You are convicted of the murder of Doris Owens," Justice McCallum told him.
A committed monarchist, Owens spent much of his career as a political campaigner, working for the NSW Liberal Party for many years, including as an adviser to the former police minister Ted Pickering.
Owens' older brother Caleb, a Sydney University lecturer, was in court today and also expressed no emotion as the plea and conviction were read.
His lawyer Robert Kaufmann said submissions regarding his client's mental health would be made at the sentencing hearing fixed for December 5.
The facts of the case still have not been made public.
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