Lauren Kaye Brown charged with concealing offence after man dropped at Taree hospital with fatal stab wounds

A young woman is the fifth person to be charged after a man was dropped at a Mid-North Coast hospital suffering from fatal stab wounds. Here’s the latest on the case.

Police are focusing their attention on a block of flat on Heath Ave, Tuncurry. Picture: Janine Watson

The fifth person charged in relation to the death of a man dropped at Manning Base Hospital suffering from fatal stab wounds is a 21-year-old woman from Taree.

Lauren Kaye Brown has been charged with concealing a serious indictable offence – the murder police are alleging in court was committed by Matthew Ronald Bennis.

Bennis, 31, has been charged after the 38-year-old man was dropped at the Taree hospital on the morning of April 23.

The man did not make it inside the emergency department before he died.

Police allege he was attacked by Bennis at Heath Ave, Tuncurry and driven to hospital by a family member.

Manning Base Hospital’s emergency entry.

Heath Ave, Tuncurry. Picture: Janine Watson

Units cordoned off as police investigated. Photos: Janine Watson

Brown was arrested on June 20 and has been remanded in custody at Mid-North Coast Correctional Centre in Kempsey.

She faced Taree Local Court on Tuesday and is yet to enter a plea in relation to the matter. The case was adjourned to August 28.

Three more women have already been charged in relation to the death, alongside Bennis, and their matters remain before the courts.

The three other women are 25-year-old Kaia Lynn Ridgeway; 50-year-old Sheree Cross and Jodie Mackenzie, also aged 50.

Mackenzie has been charged with being an accessory after fact to murder and wounding a person with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.

Ridgeway has been charged with concealing a serious indictable offence.

Cross has been charged with being an accessory after the fact to murder and accessory after the fact to malicious wounding.