Tracey Lee Pratt not guilty of elderly couple's murder

A South Coast woman who killed her elderly neighbours has been found not guilty of their murders on the grounds of mental illness.Tracey Lee Pratt, 43, had been charged with the murders of Margaret and Kenneth Keyte, who were found dead in their Batehaven home in August last year.Pratt had used an electronic massage appliance and her own fists to fatally bash the couple, aged 71 and 86, the NSW Supreme Court sitting in Wollongong heard yesterday.The court had heard that Pratt admitted killing the couple, but could not be legally responsible because she had been suffering schizophrenia at the time.Today Justice Robert Allan Hulme found Pratt not guilty of the couple's murders on the grounds of mental illness.Justice Hulme ordered she remain as a forensic patient in an appropriate jail or secure hospital indefinitely.She would be regularly reviewed by the Mental Health Tribunal until it was deemed she was safe to be released on a gradual basis.The court heard this was a ''cautious process'' and may take years or decades.For full coverage see Friday's Mercury.