Jean Eric Gassy is a deregistered medical practitioner who was convicted in October 2004 of the murder on 14 October 2002 of Dr. Margaret Tobin, then the head of government mental health services in

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a States and territories of Australia, state in the southern central part of Australia. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories by area, which in ...

. Dr Tobin was shot four times as she and her colleagues were walking away from the lift that she had taken to the eighth floor of the office (in

Hindmarsh Square Hindmarsh Square/Mukata (formerly Mogata) is one of five public squares in the Adelaide city centre, South Australia. It is located in the centre of the north-eastern quarter of the city, and surrounds the intersection of Grenfell and Pulten ...

) in which she worked. He is now incarcerated in Yatala Prison. Gassy was struck off in 1997 after being diagnosed with a delusional disorder and refusing to comply with conditions placed on his registration. Gassy's motive was that the person who initiated that deregistration process - by first raising his eligibility to be a psychiatrist or a doctor — was Dr. Tobin, his former boss. Gassy was later found to possess a "hit list" of doctors involved in his deregistration, as well as an HIV specialist who refused to treat him after the delusional former doctor became convinced he had contracted the virus. Gassy was originally sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder. However, on 14 May 2008 both his conviction and sentence were quashed by the

High Court of Australia The High Court of Australia is the apex court of the Australian legal system. It exercises original and appellate jurisdiction on matters specified in the Constitution of Australia and supplementary legislation. The High Court was establi ...

following an appeal during which Gassy had represented himself. The High Court noted that "the trial judge's directions to a jury deadlocked after a day and a half of deliberations lacked neutrality, causing a substantial miscarriage of justice." Gassy's retrial on the same charge took place in April 2009 and he was convicted on 6 May 2009.

Aftermath

The Margaret Tobin Awards were established in 2004 to publicly recognise people or organisations that have made an outstanding contribution to mental health in South Australia.Margaret Tobin Awards
SA Health In October 2006, the Margaret Tobin Centre, a 40-bed mental health inpatient centre was constructed on the grounds of the

Flinders Medical Centre Flinders Medical Centre (FMC) is a major public tertiary hospital and teaching school, co-located with Flinders University and the 130 bed Flinders Private Hospital located at Bedford Park, South Australia. It opened in 1976. It serves as the ...

. ''Inside Madness'', a book by Melissa Sweet, details and summarises the case.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gassy, Jean Eric Australian prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment Living people Criminals from Sydney Prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment by South Australia Australian people convicted of murder People convicted of murder by South Australia 1956 births 2002 murders in Australia Murder in South Australia 2000s in South Australia People with delusional disorder