A 50-year-old pensioner, Kylie Ellina Truswell-Mobbs, has been charged with murder after being accused of giving her terminally ill partner, David Ronald Mobbs, a lethal dose of prescription medication. Truswell-Mobbs was arrested over a year after Mobbs, who was in the advanced stages of motor neurone disease, passed away in December 2023 at their home in Alexandra Hills, southeast of Brisbane.
Police claim that Truswell-Mobbs unlawfully administered a lethal amount of prescription drugs to hasten Mobbs’s death. They acknowledge that there had been preliminary discussions within Mobbs’s family regarding assisted dying, but emphasize that the alleged actions of Truswell-Mobbs did not align with this process.
Motor neurone disease (MND) is a rapidly progressing condition that severely impairs a person’s ability to perform basic tasks. In this case, police assert that toxicology and forensic tests indicate lethal levels of Mobbs’s prescribed pain medication were present in his system at the time of death.
Det Acting Insp Rod Watts has stated that the accelerated death, which occurred within hours of the medication being administered, is believed to be a deliberate act of murder rather than assisted suicide. While Truswell-Mobbs had a caring relationship with Mobbs and was one of his primary carers, Watts has stressed that police do not believe domestic violence played a role in the alleged murder.
Due to the complexity of the case and the need for extensive forensic testing, it took a significant amount of time to charge Truswell-Mobbs with murder. Following her arrest on Wednesday, Truswell-Mobbs appeared briefly in the Brisbane Magistrates Court on Thursday. Her solicitor, Andrew Hanlon, did not apply for bail and instead sought an adjournment, which the police prosecutor, Sgt Duncan Erskine, did not contest. Magistrate Rosemary Gilbert then adjourned the case to April 28 and remanded Truswell-Mobbs in custody.
In Queensland, individuals charged with murder must apply for bail in the Supreme Court. Police have offered their support to the affected family during this difficult time.
Source: https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/apr/03/alleged-murder-charges-pain-medication-brisbane-ntwnfb
