Strike Force Childowla detectives charge Dalton Oliver with Graham Cameron’s murder
Homicide squad detectives have charged a 22-year-old man with murder — after Graham Cameron was found dead following a unit fire in a seaside suburb.
Newcastle
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A Newcastle man has been arrested and charged over the alleged murder of a 54-year-old man in July last year.
Dalton Trent Oliver was not required to face Raymond Terrace Local Court on Wednesday afternoon, after being charged with the murder of Graham Cameron.
The 54-year-old was found dead in his burnt-out Stockton home.
Court documents allege Oliver murdered Mr Cameron between 3am and 6am on July 26.
Aboriginal Legal Service solicitor Gaston Gration, for Oliver, did not apply for bail and asked for his client to undergo a mental health assessment on arrival in jail on remand.
Police will allege in court Graham Cameron was stabbed to death before his small unit was set alight in a bid to cover up the crime.
And homicide squad detectives allege a 22-year-old man — arrested on Wednesday morning at a home just a few hundred metres away from Mr Cameron’s unit — may not have acted alone.
Strike Force Childowla investigations swooped on the Pitt St home about 6am on October 5, and took the man, alleged to be a “casual acquaintance” of Mr Cameron, into custody following an intense 14-month investigation into the 54-year-old’s death.
“What I can say, as a result of the post mortem examination, what initially was thought that Mr Cameron had died as a result of the fire, we can now disclose and allege in the facts that Mr Cameron was actually stabbed and murdered,” homicide squad commander, Det Supt Danny Doherty, told reporters on Wednesday.
“The fire was deliberately lit to disguise or cover the circumstances of the murder and also to destroy or attempt to destroy any evidence.”
Fire crews were called to Mr Cameron’s unit on Fullerton St about 6am on July 26 last year, finding the building well alight and evacuating other residents living nearby.
Mr Cameron’s body was found inside.
Graham Cameron: Police strike force investigating Stockton unit fire death
Police will allege the 22-year-old man and Mr Cameron were known to each other, and believe other people may have been inside the unit at the time of the alleged murder.
Det Supt Doherty said those people “if not directly involved, [gave] assistance after the murder, or have knowledge and have concealed the murder”
“So those inquiries are still ongoing,” he said.
The arrested man was taken to Raymond Terrace police station where it was expected he would be charged with murder and face court later on Wednesday.
The matter was adjourned to Raymond Terrace Local Court on November 28.
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