Recluse millionaire suffered dementia: relative
29 Oct 08 @ 03:55pm
by MARK TESORIERO
ELDERLY Mt Martha recluse Elsbeth ``Betty’’ Jean Dyke suffered from dementia, a relative has told the Supreme Court.
Colin Nicholson, 59, of Mt Waverley, told the court that Miss Dyke would not have understood the documents she signed when changing her will , and that she didn’t understand what she was doing.
“My aunty suffered from dementia, from severe pain,” Mr Nicholson said.
“She overdosed on medication.”
Referring to Miss Dyke’s legal discussions with lawyers about changing her will, Mr Nicholson said: “I don’t believe she understood anything of their conversations.”
Defence counsel Russell Berglund, QC, asked Mr Nicholson why he didn’t say anything when Miss Dyke split the $1.26 million proceeds from the earlier sale of some of her land with neighbours Timothy and Denise Knaggs, Robert and Sandra Allen and Gary and Diane Smith.
Mr Nicholson said he believed the money had been given to the neighbours so Miss Dyke would be “looked after” later in life.
“If it ensured she had full private care and support in later years of life, it wouldn’t matter if it was $350,000 or $3 million,” he said.
Mr Nicholson’s mother was a first cousin of Miss Dyke.
Miss Dyke’s $15 million estate, which included the 17ha Sefton Grange property, is at the centre of an extraordinary legal dispute.
The changes to her original 1985 will effectively left her $15 million estate to the Knaggs, Allens and Smiths.
The will is being challenged by Julie Anne Nicholson, Judith and John Bailey and charities the Lort Smith Animal House, the Blue Cross Animal Society and Deaf Children Australia. Miss Dyke lived alone, never married and had no immediate family when she died, aged 84, in May 2004.
The plaintiffs’ action centres on arguments that Miss Dyke was not mentally fit when she made changes to her wills.
The trial continues before Justice Peter Vickery.
SOURCE: Mornington Peninsula LEADER
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