A NSW mother who faked having terminal cancer has now alleged her violent partner put her up to the scam.
Trigger warning: This post refers to domestic violence and may be triggering.
Elizabeth Edmunds, 31, who shaved her hair and pretended to have stage six ovarian terminal cancer, told a court yesterday that her ex-partner John Heagney, 43, forced her into the scam after trying to kill her “many a time” during their relationship.
“I was in fear for my life,” she told Belmont Local Court in NSW’s Hunter Valley, at a hearing where Mr Heagney was facing assault charges. “He was the one who instigated it… It was his documentation, doctors. It was his plan. I went through with it because I was in fear.”
Daily Mail reports Ms Edmunds told her family in April last year that she had the terminal cancer — and that doctors had given her just three years to live.
She shaved her head, had a Facebook page set up for her by strangers, accepted money from sympathetic strangers — and her 19-year-old stepdaughter even got a tribute tattoo on her chest reading: ‘Where there is love there is hope … Elle’.
But in November, Mr Heaghney posted a status update revealing Ms Edmunds wasn’t sick at all — and the NSW woman went into hiding in Queensland. Ms Edmunds then told Woman’s Day her mind had tricked her into thinking she had cancer, and that she’d even undergone chemotherapy using pills she purchased online.
She arrived at court yesterday with her mother and a domestic violence refuge worker, Daily Mail reports.
The magistrate said because Ms Edmunds ” has been prepared to lie” about the terminal illness, her credibility as a witness was in doubt — but concered it was not up to him to decide whether Mr Heagney was behind the cancer scam.
Mr Heagney was found guilty of assault occasioning actual bodily harm against Ms Edmunds, and was also found guilty of having assaulted his daughter Kayla and mother. He now faces a possible prison sentence on February 20.
If you believe you may be an abusive partner, you can receive help via Relationships Australia on 1300 364 277. If you have experienced, or are at risk of domestic violence or sexual assault, you can receive help by calling 1800 RESPECT – 1800 737 732. If you are in immediate danger please call the police on 000.