Murder charge against former X Factor contestant Mitchell Callaway withdrawn in Dubbo Local Court

A former X Factor contestant, accused of murdering a baby girl he was babysitting in the NSW Central West, has had the charge against him dropped.

Mitchell Callaway (centre) being arrested in 2023. Picture: NSW Police

A former X Factor contestant, accused of the murder of a baby girl he was babysitting in the NSW Central West, has had the charge against him dropped.

Mitchell David Callaway, 39, was not present in Dubbo Local Court on Thursday as a Crown solicitor withdrew the murder charge.

Callaway, who was a contestant in the 2011 edition of X Factor, was arrested at Bowraville on the NSW Mid North Coast in June 2023, after an investigation into the death of a nine-month-old girl in the Central West town of Binnaway in July 2018.

Paramedics were called to the home shortly after 10am on July 23, 2018, after reports the girl was unresponsive. She was rushed to Coonabarabran Hospital where she died a short time later.

The Crown had alleged Callaway fatally assaulted the child and these injuries caused the baby to go into cardiac arrest.

Mitchell Callaway on stage during X Factor Australia in 2011.

During a successful bail application on December 5, 2023, Callaway’s lawyer, Nicholas Broadbent, had questioned the strength of the Crown case, arguing the timing and cause of the injuries sustained by the girl remained unclear.

A coronial inquest was conducted into the girl’s death, but to this day the exact cause of death and when the baby acquired the injuries remains unknown.

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