NSW: Woman acquitted of murder jailed for forging will
03 Apr 2009 10:47 AM
SYDNEY, April 3 AAP - A woman acquitted of murdering her father has been jailed for at least two years and 10 months for forging his will and trying to persuade her daughter to give false evidence.
Daniela Beltrame has been in custody since her arrest in February 2007, meaning she will be eligible for parole on December 7 this year.
A NSW Supreme Court jury last month found Beltrame not guilty of murdering Ederino Beltrame, 70, in April 2001 at his Canley Heights home in Sydney's west.
She had pleaded guilty to forging his will and the jury found her guilty of trying the persuade her daughter Loretta Appleyard to give false evidence about the will at the inquest into Mr Beltrame's death.
In sentencing her to a maximum of five years jail, acting Justice Jane Mathews said Beltrame had written an "extremely self-involved and self-pitying" four-page letter to Ms Appleyard to try to stop her revealing that she had not witnessed her grandfather signing the will.
Justice Mathews noted that the true final will of her father left of all his estate to Beltrame, except for a $30,000 payment to her brother.
The false will left everything to her and the judge noted to amount gained by Beltrame as a result of the forgery was $30,000 - "hardly a huge amount of money".
At the murder trial, Beltrame's other daughter, Romina Beltrame, told the jury she saw her mother trying to smother her father with a pillow after binding him to a bed with cling wrap.
But, she said, she had not reported witnessing this until 2007, because her mother had threatened suicide in 2001.
