Awaiting trial, but free to go

Sean Davison. Photo / NZ Listener.

A judge has allowed an Auckland-born scientist to return to South Africa, even though he is awaiting trial for helping his terminally ill mother die.

The unusual High Court decision to return Sean Davison's passport was made after Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the world-renowned anti-apartheid leader, reportedly appealed on his behalf.

Davison was charged with attempted murder in September after the Herald on Sunday revealed he had written of giving his mother "a lethal drink of crushed morphine tablets" in Dunedin in 2006.

His 85-year-old mother, Pat, died shortly after taking the drink.

Davison told the Herald on Sunday this week he was unable to discuss the case because it was before the courts, but that he had been back in Cape Town for a week and was grateful to the New Zealand courts for allowing him to do so.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu, in supporting Davison's return to South Africa, was acting in his capacity as chancellor of the University of the Western Cape, where Davison works as a biotechnology professor.

"Archbishop Desmond Tutu is very respected in New Zealand and his support as chancellor helped the application for bail," Davison's lawyer Len Anderson told South Africa's Sunday Times.

An unpublished draft of Davison's memoir, Before We Say Goodbye, was leaked to the Herald on Sunday in 2009, revealing he had given his mother the lethal dose of morphine.

In the manuscript, Davison described the moments leading up to his mother's death, a description that was deleted from the published version of the book.

Davison said last month he understood that the law had to take its course and he would have to face the charge.

"[But] what I did to help my mother at the end of her life I did for the love of my mother, I did not do it to write a book nor to become a martyr for a cause to change the law. I had no intention of joining an organisation to campaign for a law change on euthanasia."

Davison said he had been in contact with Lesley Martin, a former nurse who was jailed for giving a lethal dose of morphine to her ailing mother, and was inspired by her organisation, Dignity New Zealand.