Lawyers for Tony Rowe’s alleged murderer Timothy Hunt given timeline ahead of major Supreme Court trial

An alleged murderer’s defence team is reviewing hundreds of hours of footage after a 36-year-old Darwin man vanished from a busy pub, only for his body to be discovered 12-months later dumped in bushland.

The man accused of trying to ‘disappear’ a Darwin man has spent the past two years in a maximum security cell on remand close to where his alleged victim’s body was dumped.

Timothy Hunt was charged with murdering Tony Rowe a year after the 36-year-old vanished without a trace from the Hibiscus Tavern pub on May 28, 2022.

Mr Rowe was declared a missing person for 12 months until his remains were located by the side of the road in Holtze in 2023.

Following this discovery NT Police extradited Mr Hunt from Queensland back to the Territory, where he has spent the past 731 days on remand in a Holtze prison cell.

On the eve of the three year anniversary of Mr Rowe’s disappearance and alleged murder, Mr Hunt’s barrister appeared before Supreme Court Justice Sonia Brownhill.

Tony Rowe was declared a missing person for 12 months until his remains were located, dumped by the side of the road in Holtze in 2023.

On Tuesday Justice Brownhill heard that the defence had not yet confirmed a set of agreed facts while the prosecution had not filed their notices on the admissibility of evidence.

Prosecutor Damien Jones said in order to proceed through the pre-trial process Mr Hunt’s barrister Marty Aust needed to “nail his colours to the mast sooner rather than later”.

Police would only say the remains believed to be Tony Rowe were found in an "isolated area south of Darwin". Picture: Supplied

Mr Jones warned that without a clear statement of agreed facts, there remained the “potential to blow out the length of the trial”.

“It hampers the effective running of a smooth trial,” he said.

Mr Jones called for a structured timeframe on the filing from both parties, “so that we’re not on the back foot when it comes time for your Honour to give rulings on the admissibility of evidence”.

However defence barrister Marty Aust said before locking down the agreed facts he needed to get instructions from the 31-year-old alleged murderer.

“This isn’t the situation where the defence is trying to be difficult,” Mr Aust said.

“There’s hundreds of hours of various recorded materials, I have a man in maximum security, I have limited access to him.

“(But) we can’t do anything until the notices are filed, we will respond to them.

“All I need to do is see my client.”

Mr Aust flagged that a case management order was “somewhat unnecessary cajoling”, but Justice Brownhill clarified the order it was not an accusation that Mr Hunt’s defence team was being recalcitrant or slow.

“The structure and timeframe is so we don’t have a mad panic at the end,” she said.

Justice Brownhill adjourned the matter to July 30 for a voir dire hearing to discuss the admissibility of evidence.

Originally published as Lawyers for Tony Rowe’s alleged murderer Timothy Hunt given timeline ahead of major Supreme Court trial