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A Gold Coast man accused of running an illegal euthanasia operation had set up a charity to euthanise beached whales as a front to obtain veterinary drugs, detectives believe.
Queensland police allege the animal drugs were then sold to customers to facilitate suicides.
Homicide detectives began investigating Brett Daniel Taylor, 53, and his 80-year-old father after the death of a 43-year-old man from Hope Island, identified as David Llwellyn Bedford, whose toxicology report showed he died from acute pentobarbitone toxicity – related to the ingestion of a euthanasia drug for animals.
Brett Taylor has been charged with aiding suicide and trafficking dangerous drugs.Credit: Facebook
Further investigations by police led to the discovery of a business called End of Life Services that offered death services, including a “finding service where [Taylor] can turn up and locate the deceased after they’ve ended their life”.
The business’s website appeared to offer general will execution and estate services but stated that “EOL Services help you plan, prepare and administer a loved one passing”.
Police would allege Taylor, from Main Beach on the Gold Coast, set up a charity called Cetacean Compassion Australia Ltd to purchase sodium pentobarbitone, the animal euthanasia drug used to facilitate human suicide.
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“That charity is just a front,” Gold Coast Detective Inspector Mark Mooney said.
Footage released on Monday showed police searching Taylor’s mother’s home in Victoria, where a large quantity of the euthanasia drug was uncovered in Australia Post packaging.
Taylor was charged with two counts of aiding suicide and one count each of trafficking dangerous drugs, possessing dangerous drugs and receiving or possessing property obtained from trafficking or supplying.
An 81-year-old Southport woman, Elaine Arch-Rowe, was charged with one count each of aiding suicide, trafficking dangerous drugs, and possessing dangerous drugs. Arch-Rowe was applying for bail in the Southport Magistrates Court on Tuesday.
Taylor’s father was charged with one count each of trafficking dangerous drugs and possessing dangerous drugs.
Police also alleged Taylor openly sold euthanasia drugs in public meetings in at least one instance and believed the operation could be connected to 20 suicides across Australia.
Asked about the alleged operation on Tuesday, Queensland Health Minister Tim Nicholls said the matter was “totally unacceptable” and he endorsed the police investigation.
“It is totally unacceptable for anyone to prey on vulnerable people who are understandably at their wits’ end when it comes to dealing with these terrible, terrible situations,” Nicholls said.
“You would be less than human if you didn’t feel that way, and anyone engaging in these sorts of things should feel the full force of the law and should feel it properly and quickly.”
Queensland legalised voluntary assisted euthanasia for terminally ill patients in 2021, with the laws coming into effect in January 2023.
To access euthanasia, Queensland adults must have been diagnosed with a disease, illness or medical condition that is advanced, progressive, would cause death within 12 months and was causing intolerable suffering.
The person must be assessed by two doctors, make three separate requests, and they can change their mind at any time.
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