Murder accused Natasha Darcy’s alleged internet searches could have other explanations, court told

Internet searches allegedly conducted by murder accused Natasha Darcy may look ‘suspicious’ but could have an innocent explanation, a court has heard.

Walcha sheep grazier Mathew Dunbar with partner Natasha Beth Darcy, who has been charged with his murder.

There could be innocent explanations for Google searches recorded on Natasha Darcy’s iPhone in the months before she allegedly murdered her partner Mathew Dunbar, her barrister has told a jury.

Ms Darcy, 46, has pleaded not guilty to drugging and gassing Mr Dunbar at his Pandora property on the outskirts of Walcha, NSW, in the early hours of August 2, 2017.

Prosecutors allege she spent months researching how to kill the sheep farmer on her iPhone and a home computer, starting with searches like “spider venom”, “identify mushroom” and “poisonous fungi australia” before moving to searches related to drugs and death, including “how many tablets suicide” and “how to commit murder”.

Natasha Darcy has pleaded not guilty to murdering Mathew Dunbar. Picture: Facebook

Her defence barrister Janet Manuell SC told the NSW Supreme Court on Tuesday that Ms Darcy had only been living at Mr Dunbar’s farm for a few months when the mushroom and spider searches occurred in February and March 2017.

“Were there lots of redback spiders around the property?” Ms Manuell said. “Why wouldn’t Ms Darcy and (her family) want to know more about what they were seeing?

“What’s to say she wasn’t out in the property one day (with her family), using it to search for mushrooms or fungi they couldn’t eat, and those searches were made for that reason?

“When’s mushroom season around Walcha? There’s no evidence of that.”

She told jurors that while things might at first look “suspicious”, they had to consider if there were other reasonable explanations.

Sheep farmer Mathew Dunbar died in the early hours of August 2, 2017. Picture: Facebook

Ms Darcy contends she assisted Mr Dunbar’s suicide. In a police interview played to the jury, she said he regularly searched things on her phone.

Ms Manuell said there were several internet searches related to suicide on April 18, 2017.

The next day, she told jurors, there was a search for “how to stop suicidal thoughts”.

“The question we would ask you is who makes a search for something like that?” she said.

“You’d think it was someone having suicidal thoughts who’d make a search like that.”

Ms Manuell painted a picture of various pressures the defence says Mr Dunbar was under at the time he died, including financial woes and an ongoing struggle with his “unclear sexual orientation”.

He had been diagnosed with “extremely severe depression” in 2009, she said, and told a junior medical officer when admitted to hospital after a suicide threat on June 13, 2017, that he had a plan to end his life.

The next day, she said, he told psychiatrist Clive Stanton he had no such plan.

Dr Stanton testified Mr Dunbar did not have a significant mental illness and his depression was largely reactive to Ms Darcy’s “emotional manipulation” of him.

Ms Manuell urged the jury to approach the psychiatrist’s evidence with caution, saying he had met Mr Dunbar twice and been given a history that was “at best patchy”.

“How much did Dr Stanton really know?” she said.

Prosecutors allege Ms Darcy wanted to get her hands on Mr Dunbar’s $3.5 million property, Pandora. Picture: NSW Supreme Court.

Ms Manuell told the court that Mr Dunbar’s father John had “ruled the roost” at Pandora, making all the financial decisions, before his death in 2007.

She noted a friend Lance Partridge had testified Mr Dunbar was “shrewd” with money and did not like paying tax.

But, she said, maybe he spent too much on farm equipment and home renovations compared with how much Pandora was bringing in.

Ms Manuell said Mr Dunbar’s taxable income was recorded as $17,221 in 2011 and $0 in each of the next four years.

“Either there was some extremely good accounting happening … or in fact Pandora was not actually doing all that well,” she said.

He did not submit a tax return for 2016, she said, adding: “You might think that when you’re depressed your personal administration goes ignored.”

The trial continues.

Originally published as Murder accused Natasha Darcy’s alleged internet searches could have other explanations, court told