An elderly West Australian businessman has failed in his bid to appeal an eight-and-a-half year sentence for attempting to have his former daughter-in-law murdered.
Wealthy Albany construction company owner Brian Vincent Attwell was in 2013 found guilty by a jury of the rare offence of attempting to procure the commission of a crime, following a five-day trial in the Great Southern town.
The court heard Attwell had asked a man, who approached him desperate for work, to kill Michelle Patreena Attwell after becoming frustrated with a protracted, bitter legal dispute between her and his son following their marriage breakdown.
The man told police, who instructed him to set up a meeting between Attwell and an undercover policeman.
Attwell paid $10,000 in two instalments as a down payment on the $30,000 job to a policeman posing as a hitman.
His lawyer Tom Percy argued in December, when Attwell was aged 74, that the sentence was manifestly excessive, citing the diabetic's old age and infirmity.
But the WA Court of Appeal rejected the appeal bid on Thursday.
In his reasons, Justice Robert Mazza said the offence, which attracts a maximum penalty of life imprisonment, was "clearly a serious example of its type".
"The appellant was serious in his desire to have Ms Attwell murdered," he wrote.
"The offence was not committed on the spur of the moment by someone who was weak or suggestible.
"To the contrary, the appellant initiated the offence and executed it with premeditation, planning and significant persistence.
"The appellant wanted her killed and did all that he could to achieve this end."
Mr Attwell even directed how Ms Attwell should be killed and her body disposed of, Justice Mazza noted.
He said the sentence was within the upper levels of the range of sentences available, but was not unjust or unreasonable.
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