An 88 year-old man with severe and advancing dementia accused of murdering his wife of 56 years has had the charge dropped, after a court ruled he will never be fit to plead to the allegation. John Huggins has since March been charged with the murder of his 76 year-old wife Joan, whom he was accused of stabbing to death in their Piara Waters home. WA’s Supreme Court today heard that a neighbour of the couple found Mrs Huggins’ body after becoming concerned when speaking to Mr Huggins as he wandered around in the front yard of his southern suburbs home. The court was told today that a highly disoriented Mr Huggins told his neighbour that “there is a dead little girl in the house”. When the neighbour investigated, it was in fact Mrs Huggins who was inside, with fatal stab wounds. Today, Justice Stephen Hall sat on a fitness to plea hearing, where he was told that since his arrest Mr Huggins had been an in-patient at the Armadale hospital, being treated for his advancing dementia, which had markedly deteriorated in the last month. Justice Hall was told there was a strong, circumstantial case against Mr Huggins, who was being cared for by his wife at the time of her death after a long and apparently happy marriage. The court heard that previously, another violent incident had occurred when Mr Huggins became upset about his wife researching respite care on the internet.
