After years of volatile co-habitation, Pearl Marie Wilson, 63, likely doused 46-year-old Jason Shepstone in scalding water multiple times in the hours leading to his February 12, 2013 death. 

Afterwards, having seen him vomit up “blood and other stuff” she helped him onto a dry mattress, cleaned up, lay down beside him and “cuddled him and went to sleep with him”. 

The Crown pointed to these tender acts as signs of Wilson’s guilt – clues she understood the seriousness of Mr Shepstone’s situation. 

But a judge accepted expert evidence this was part of a cycle of behaviour – aggression, regret, reconciliation, sleep – typical to people in abusive relationships.   

Wilson was declared medically unfit for a trial by jury and faced a special hearing in the NSW Supreme Court before Judge Monika Schmidt, who delivered her verdict on Wednesday.

The judge considered the differing accounts Wilson provided to police and doctors in 2013, 2014 and 2015. At one point, for instance, she attributed the water-throwing to Mr Shepstone having grabbed her arm while she made tea. Another time she said she lashed out because he grabbed her around the throat and she thought “I  was going to die at the time. He’s done it before. I can’t breathe when he puts his hands round my throat or the pillow over me”. 

The judge found the inconsistencies could have been the result of her intellectual disability, dementia and PTSD. Also, it was possible all three accounts were true, since Mr Shepstone had been repeatedly doused. 

Wilson directed police to a metal pole – about two kilograms heavy and 57cms long – and admitted to having hit Mr Shepstone with it “on the legs and bones”.

The court heard details of Wilson’s nightmarish childhood. She suffered abuse throughout, was fostered then placed in an orphanage and had never been able to learn to read or write. She fell within the bottom one per cent of the population for intellectual functioning and had an IQ of just 63. 

​Mr Shepstone had cirrhosis of the liver so severe it could have killed him at any time. But he died of hypovolemic shock – the result of there not being enough blood is his vessels to carry oxygen to his lungs and brain – the combined effect of his bruising and burns.

His lifeless body was found naked under a blanket, covered in blisters. Burns covered 20 per cent of his body and he had 65 blunt force injuries.

The judge found his liver disease had made him vulnerable to such bruises. Just as not all of Wilson’s bruises could be attributed to him, the same was true in reverse.  

The judge found pouring more near-boiling water on Mr Shepstone would ultimately have caused him to fall to the ground, unable to get to a cold shower. 

“What Ms Wilson then did was, undoubtedly, unreasonable and excessive, notwithstanding Mr Shepstone’s tendency, his conduct to that point that night and even the nature of their past relationship,” Judge Schmidt said. 

The judge found it established beyond reasonable doubt that Wilson’s response had involved multiple doses of water, and was excessive. 

The case will now be referred to the Mental Health Review Tribunal, to decide whether Wilson should be detained in a mental health facility.