In the course of giving her own evidence, Mrs Sinclair swore that she attempted without success to do something about this. I accept that Malcolm quickly rebuffed her. Perhaps his reaction was the product of embarrassment, together with a fear of wounded pride. The fact remains that, without his co-operation, her capacity to effect change was limited. It was his mess, and only he could create order out of it. How, for example, could she relocate his books and magazines from the floor to a bookshelf or magazine storage space without his participation?
Perhaps she could and should have done more to ensure that, if chaos there had to be, at least it would be clean chaos. But unordered clutter is peculiarly hard to keep clean. Nevertheless, it does say something about the relationship that it did not result in a change in Malcolm's habits. They were clearly inappropriate for a man of his health. He suffered from serious skin problems. Dust was not good for him. Mrs Sinclair knew this. She either failed to persuade him to change, or she tried and he ignored her. It is not surprising that the state of the Clonarg Street home re-enforced Campbell and Noreen Forsyth's perception of Mrs Sinclair as an opportunist rather than a loving domestic partner. In their eyes, either her claims to have spent many nights with Malcolm in his home were and are untrue, or she failed in her duty to him by failing to get rid of his mess.
In these circumstances, it is inevitable that much was made during the course of the hearing about the conditions under which Malcolm lived. The evidence, however, did not point in only one direction. If it is true, as Campbell and Noreen Forsyth maintain, that Mrs Sinclair should have done more to wean Malcolm of his untidy habits, so - it seems to me - should they. They too knew of the problems Malcolm had with his skin. In addition, Campbell was an owner of the house. Apart from anything else, his brother's habits would not have assisted in an emergency such as a fire or a flood. But just as I think Mrs Sinclair's capacity to effect change was limited, so I think the same of the other two. In the end, it was Malcolm's responsibility to look after himself. Neither Mrs Sinclair, nor Campbell Forsyth, nor his wife, share much if any blame for the fact that Malcolm did himself less than justice in the way he managed the interior of his home (he was no gardener, either).[9]
...
... for understandable reasons, Campbell and Noreen Forsyth, who were unaware of the strength of Malcolm's ties to domesticity, have never reconciled Mrs Sinclair's status as a nurse with her claims to have been the loving domestic partner of someone who lived in a mess of chaotic untidiness. Their position is that if, as she claims, she spent many nights at Clonarg Street, she as a nurse would not have tolerated that mess. It is therefore, they submit, unlikely that her account of time spent with Malcolm Forsyth in his home is true.
... I am satisfied that that condition was, at the time of Malcolm Forsyth's death, more or less as Campbell and Noreen Forsyth described what they saw when they first entered the house after hearing the news. They thereafter left it as it was, even to the extent of abandoning a carton of milk that Malcolm had left in the refrigerator. It is no wonder that, when a police officer known to them (Senior Constable Phillip Copsey) inspected the property the following September, the house in general was covered in dust and grime and was, in his words, 'almost putrid'.
In these circumstances, counsel for Campbell Forsyth (Mr Loewenstein) submitted that it was significant that Mrs Sinclair in her cross-examination referred to herself as Malcolm Forsyth's 'carer'. Mr Loewenstein's point, of course, was that no carer, especially a carer who was also a qualified nurse, would have allowed the subject of his or her care to live in the conditions in which, he submitted, Malcolm lived. But in giving the answer she did, Mrs Sinclair did not mean that she had adopted the role of a person entrusted with the care of someone unable to care for himself. Her full answer to the question put to her by Mr Loewenstein was:
'I was his carer, I looked after him, he looked after me. We lived together, we did everything together.'
I accept that Mrs Sinclair did 'look after' Mr Forsyth. She washed his clothes and ironed his shirts. She applied cream to his sensitive skin in an attempt to alleviate the discomfort his skin condition imposed upon him. She collected medicines for him. She cooked meals. She accompanied him to medical appointments. She did not, perhaps, perform these tasks as often as she might have done had she and Mr Forsyth lived together at one address. Nevertheless, she regularly provided for him many of the services that a carer might provide, particularly in the application of the skin cream.
Moreover, Malcolm did not live in the conditions described by Mr Copsey. A dreadfully untidy and somewhat dusty mess it was, but I am satisfied that - whatever its condition in September 2004 - it was not during Malcolm's lifetime also smothered with grime and cobwebs. Moreover, I have given my reasons for concluding that, to the extent (if at all) that Malcolm himself did not shoulder the entire blame, Mrs Sinclair, Campbell Forsyth and Noreen Forsyth each had a degree of responsibility for the state of the house.[10]