This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

A Sydney man who gave his seriously ill partner a lethal shot of heroin in what a judge has described as a “mercy killing” will spend at least 10 years behind bars. 

Robert Ronald Cooper pleaded guilty to murdering his partner, Donna Green, in Bankstown in early March 2017. 

In the New South Wales supreme court on Friday, acting justice Peter Hidden sentenced him to 13-and-a-half years in jail with a non-parole period of 10 years. 

The court heard Green had been seriously ill and was admitted to hospital 24 times in the 13 months before her death. 

Hidden said he was satisfied that Green has asked Cooper to give her a lethal shot of heroin to take the pain away. 

“I accept that this was a mercy killing,” he said. “ I accept that he did indeed love the deceased ... he made an agonising decision.”