Inside Story- Channel 9- Killer in the Family- Australian Crime 2014

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• published: 01 Sep 2014
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WHEN grazier Jeffrey Ryan was executed on his northern NSW farm in October 2009, his mother Marie and wife Helen stood side by side and pleaded for public help to solve the ''devastating'' murder. ''We find it hard to understand why anyone could have done this to my son,'' Marie Ryan said. But their bond would be broken when police discovered it was in fact Helen Ryan, in concert with her mother, Coralie Coulter, and sister, Ganene Coulter, who had ''coldly and callously'' paid a hitman $30,000 to kill her estranged husband. Yesterday, as Helen Ryan, 51, was sentenced to a maximum 36 years jail, and Coralie Coulter, 72, to a maximum 27 years jail, Marie Ryan fought back tears as she described the pair as ''very evil people''. More than a dozen family and friends of Mr Ryan, 48, gathered in the NSW Supreme Court as Justice Megan Latham described how Helen Ryan ''deliberately and methodically plotted to have her husband killed'' after he ended their 15-year relationship and cut her stake in his will, which included their $1 million farm at Duri, near Tamworth. Helen told her mother and sister that Jeffrey was physically and sexually abusing her and another person, who cannot be named for legal reasons, although Justice Latham found on evidence these claims were ''grossly exaggerated''. Ganene offered to find a hitman using contacts she had acquired working in the escort industry, and Coralie agreed to fund $10,000 towards the $15,000 deposit for the contract killer. During the trial, the jury was played telephone intercepts in which the three women described themselves as a ''triangle'' that would not be broken if they stuck together. But after they were arrested following a four-month investigation by detectives from Strike Force Chandler, including an undercover officer who infiltrated the triangle, the trio turned on each other. In May this year, Ganene, 42, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to murder and agreed to testify against her mother and sister. In return, she received a discount of 30 per cent on her sentence, and will serve a minimum of seven years and four months behind bars in protective custody. When Helen and Coralie's trial for murder began in July, Helen said she had only paid $5000 to have her husband ''roughed up a bit'', claiming that her sister, Ganene, had obtained extra money from their mother to have him killed. Ganene had a brief relationship with Mr Ryan in 1994 before he ''transferred his affections'' to her older sister and Ganene had ordered the hit out of ''revenge, hate and jealousy'', Helen said. Coralie denied plotting the murder with her daughters and said she was not told her money had been used to pay the hitman until after Mr Ryan was shot dead. But the jury rejected both Helen and Coralie's version of events. Yesterday, Justice Latham said Coralie was a ''willing and active participant'' in the murder and although she was probably motivated by a false belief that her daughter and another person were being abused, it did not justify her behaviour. In imposing a non-parole period of 27 years, Justice Latham said Helen was ''far from the cowering and terrorised wife she portrayed'' and found she ''embarked on a cold-blooded plan to get rid of her husband rather than risk the dissolution of the marriage and the diminution of the assets they had acquired''. Coralie will be 90 when eligible for parole and will likely die in jail. Ben Ryan, Jeffrey's son from his first marriage, said the family was pleased with the sentences. ''At the end of the day it doesn't bring dad back so whatever the penalty is we must accept it,'' he said. The last woman to be sentenced for homicide in NSW was Keli Lane, who received a minimum of 13 years and five months, and a maximum of 18 years for the murder of her newborn baby, Tegan. Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use. I do not own this video.