Man who killed disabled wife in Adelaide pond dies in prison

Peter’s son Dancy said “he died where he belonged”.

The Department of Corrections confirmed the 74-year-old, who was serving a life sentence, died yesterday of natural causes.

Two months ago, the Court of Appeal ruled once and for all that Dancy killed his wife Helen by pushing her wheelchair into a shallow lake in the city’s South Park in 2017 because he saw her as a financial burden.

For Helen Grant’s son, it is the latest chapter in a seven-year saga that has included two trials – one which had to be thrown out – and three appeals reaching the High Court.

Dancy even fought his way out of prison to claim half of his murdered wife’s estate for himself.

Grant, who lives overseas, told 9News he felt “relief” but also sadness because his mother’s death was “completely preventable.”

Dancy’s death, like all deaths in custody, is now the subject of a coronial inquest.