The committal hearing of a man accused of a triple murder at Hermidale has been adjourned as the defence sought the opportunity to consider a report not yet served by the Crown.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Allan Geoffrey O’Connor faced the second day of a committal hearing before magistrate Gary Wilson at Dubbo Local Court on Thursday.
The 63-year-old is charged with the murder of his former partner Rebecca Webb and of Steven and Jacob Cumberland at a Hermidale property in June 2015.
After six people took the witness stand, public defender Ian Nash applied for an adjournment and for further brief service orders to be made.
The committal proceedings had started in the first half of the year, Mr Nash said.
“Now we’re told today a very important process has been ongoing for months [and is] not yet complete,” he said.
Against that background, Mr O’Connor was entitled to an adjournment for the material to be served and for the defence to have the opportunity to consider it, Mr Nash said.
Mr Wilson questioned the defence about why the matter should be delayed.
“Mr Nash, you’ve got 99.5 per cent of the brief,” he said.
The barrister continued to press the matter.
Nee Tran-Dinh from the DPP submitted the matter should be committed to the Supreme Court that day.
“It’s now ready to go to trial,” he said.
“Any reports outstanding should be served by the Supreme Court date,” he said.
But Mr Nash said it was about his client being “prepared for a triple-murder trial” and also that the “evidence about the crime scene was opaque at best”.
Mr Wilson ordered that the further statement be filed and served by December 15 if it was to be relied on, and listed the matter before the Local Court on December 21.
In the stand Senior Constable Powell confirmed when he arrived at the crime scene he saw the soil was damp and there were puddles between the main road and the camp site.
When asked if there was any precipitation after his arrival on June 26, he said there was a very heavy dew but no actual rainfall.
Scientific officer Matthew Bolton was questioned about the injuries to Ms Webb he observed when attending the autopsy.
He agreed that in his statement he described three areas of injury to the female victim, but his opinion was those three areas had been caused by only two discharges of a shotgun.
