Networked Knowledge - Media Report

[This edited version of the report has been prepared by Dr Robert N Moles]

Paul Carter of the AAP has reported details of the Weightman case in NSW and which involved Dr Alan Cala. Dr Cala now works in South Australia. The AAP report said that a court order which suppressed details of a Sydney double murder had been lifted. It was now revealed that an adopted son had killed his wealthy parents for the inheritance. The bodies of William Weightman, 52, and his wife Pamela, 50, were found in their car, 20m down an embankment at Heathcote in Sydney's south, on January 9, 2000.

It transpired that the adopted son, David Weightman, had killed the couple and put their bodies in the car to make their deaths look like an accident. Mr and Mrs Weightman had been drugged, then suffocated with a pillow in their home, on January 8. They had operated a child minding service.

The AAP report said that NSW Police had investigated the deaths as a car accident. This was apparently based on the forensic report of Dr Cala. However, Mrs Weightman's sister had raised suspicions about the couple's death which were later backed up by more detailed forensic information. The police formed a task force in June 2001 to reinvestigate the case.

Weightman had denied murdering his parents until he was confronted about his role in the deaths by his mother's sister, Margaret Unwin, in February 2004. The AAP report says that he confessed to police the next day. The court documents disclosed that "The offender frankly acknowledged that his motive was to inherit a large sum of money". "He denied that he ... bore any animosity towards his parents.

"Indeed, he said that he had had a loving relationship with them and that he had been well provided for." Weightman, the couple's only child, had been adopted shortly after birth.

He pleaded guilty to the murders and was convicted and sentenced by Justice Peter Hidden in the NSW Supreme Court on December 23 last year. He will be eligible for parole in 2026, after serving 19 years' jail for the murders.

The AAP report said that details of the case were suppressed while an alleged co-accused was tracked by police. A 38-year-old man had been arrested at Coogee, in Sydney's east, on Friday, June 16, and was charged with murdering Mr and Mrs Weightman. He was remanded in custody to appear in Liverpool Local Court on August 30.

Source: Paul Carter, "Parents murdered for money" AAP July 13, 2006

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