Ex-cop who drove wife off pier 'wanted to kill himself'
- February 6, 2009 - 4:06PM
Cameron Cook wanted to die. And he wanted to make sure his wife would witness it.
So he punched the woman he accused of having an affair, shackled her ankles, taped her mouth and bundled her into the back seat of his car.
After fastening her to a chain he'd secured around the front seat, he set off for Melbourne's Mordialloc pier.
When he got there, he planted his foot on the accelerator and drove off.
Sonia Cook would have died, prosecutors told a court on Friday, had a locked gate not stopped her husband from reaching the deep-water location he'd originally planned to use.
"The car would have sunk," Crown prosecutor Gavin Silbert SC told the Victorian Supreme Court. "We would've had a murder-suicide."
Instead, Cook ended up driving into relatively shallow water off the pier, and Ms Cook, despite her restraints, was able to free herself from the vehicle.
The 42-year-old Cheltenham man has pleaded guilty to the attempted murder of his wife in September 2007 after learning she was having an affair.
Mr Silbert told Friday's pre-sentence hearing that there was no evidence Cook felt any remorse for his actions.
But defence lawyer John Kelly said his client's actions were completely out of character, and Cook had not been coping with the breakdown of his marriage and family life.
He said Cook's aim had been to kill himself and for his wife to witness it.
"What happened on the 7th of September was utterly abhorrent and utterly atypical of him," Mr Kelly said.
"But he didn't know how to cope with what for him was an impending catastrophe.
"He just saw red for a couple of seconds."
In a statement Cook gave to police, which was read in court, he said: "I knew I was fked as soon as I hit her. In that instant I knew I had thrown away my life."
Cook has also pleaded guilty to reckless conduct endangering life and intentionally causing serious injury.
Friday's hearing was adjourned to a date to be fixed.
http://www.theage.com.au/national/excop-who-drove-wife-off-pier-wanted-to-kill-himself-20090206-7zp5.html
