A man who killed his sleeping wife has had his appeal against his conviction dismissed.
Colin Barry Clough, 41, was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison in August last year in the Supreme Court in Brisbane for murdering Leanne Elizabeth Clough, 34, on September 16, 2005, in Carina, in Brisbane’s southeast.
He faced Queensland’s first judge-only trial, because his lawyers agreed not to dispute the facts and would mount a defence of insanity or diminished responsibility.
The trial heard Clough had taken methylamphetamine almost two days before stabbing his wife 11 times, and was psychotic at the time of the slaying.
He suffered from paranoid schizophrenia and believed Mrs Clough was part of a gang that wanted to torture and murder him and his mother, the court heard.
He also believed there were people living in both the ceiling and couch of his home in Meadowbrook, south of Brisbane.
His lawyers launched an appeal against his conviction on two grounds, saying Justice Margaret Wilson erred in her conclusion about the test for intoxication and on her application of both insanity and diminished responsibility.
Clough’s application was dismissed today in a unanimous decision in the Court of Appeal.
In his judgment, Justice John Muir said: “She (Justice Wilson) was satisfied that the appellant had intentionally caused himself to be intoxicated with methylamphetamine and could therefore not absolve himself of criminal responsibility for the killing.”
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