Widow killer likely to die in jail: court

A carer who murdered an elderly Sydney man after fleecing him of his money is unlikely to serve her full jail term due to terminal cancer, a court has heard.

Kerry Forrest was this year found guilty of murdering 84-year-old Bill Adamson by making him ingest a lethal dose of a morphine-based painkiller in a Sydney motel room in April 2010.

The 54-year-old had been hired as Mr Adamson's live-in carer less than a year earlier after his wife, Beryl, died.

Within six months, Forrest helped him sell his home in Kareela, in Sydney's south, for $690,000, leaving them with a profit of more than $300,000.

She then began to squirrel the money into several of her bank accounts, and started spending the proceeds on poker machines in clubs across Sydney.

At her sentencing hearing on Friday, the Supreme Court was told Forrest had been diagnosed with terminal cancer and had spent much of her time in custody in hospital.

While conceding the crime was very serious, her barrister argued it was unlikely she would survive a long jail sentence.

He said she was admitted to Prince of Wales Hospital in October with "considerable complications" after collapsing in jail.

"She sits in a bed or chair in the prison hospital and has very little mobility," he said.

"Essentially, she's in isolation.

"Everybody needs some interaction with their fellow human beings. She will have no social interaction other than with the nurses and chaplain staff.

"The minimum term will be considerably greater than her life span is."

Forrest has spent nearly three years behind bars since her arrest in 2011, including time for obtaining money by deception.

In handing down his verdict in May, Justice Peter Hidden said Forrest "misappropriated Mr Adamson's money and killed him to prevent that misappropriation being exposed".

Forrest will be sentenced on November 27.