• Source: An elderly man has been sentenced to four and a half months home detention for the attempted murder of his wife in a suicide pact. File picture. Source: istock.com Matamata man Roy Morton, 82, pleaded guilty in the High Court at Hamilton. He attempted to kill his wife and himself on two occasions after she suffered a debilitating stroke in October last year. He claimed that even though his wife was unable to verbally communicate with him he knew from her gestures that she wanted to die. Justice Davison did not accept that due to Morton's lack of capability to understand.