Trial of Gunnedah teen accused of murdering 10yo girl collapses after bombshell report

A 15-year-old Gunnedah girl was due to start a five-day murder trial in the NSW Supreme Court today until a bombshell report emerged at the 11th hour.

Emergency crews at the scene of the killing in Gunnedah.

A murder trial against a teen accused of setting upon a 10-year-old girl is set to collapse after prosecutors were handed a new medical report at the 11th hour that suggested her mental health defence had been proven.

The teen, now 15, was taken into custody in July 2020 after the girl was discovered dead in a Gunnedah home in country NSW.

Police arrested the teen in an adjoining rural property and charged her with murder.

She was due to start a five-day trial in the NSW Supreme Court on Monday after pleading not guilty due to mental impairment, but it emerged prosecutors had been handed a medical expert’s report at the weekend that suggested her defence was made out.

What the teen physically did to the girl was never in dispute, but the trial was expected to look into whether she was mentally impaired at the time of the killing.

Crown prosecutor Lee Carr SC told Acting Justice Carolyn Simpson that he had been told to proceed in the matter on mental health grounds instead of a standard murder trial.

“I’ve received a direction to proceed pursuant to section 31 of the new mental health and cognitive impairment forensic provisions act of 2020,” he said.

“There’s a new section in that your honour, section 31, which permits that the court may enter a special verdict of an act proven but not criminally responsible at any time in the proceedings if the defendant and the prosecutor agree that the proposed evidence in the proceedings establishes a defence of mental health impairment or cognitive impairment, (if) the young person is represented by an Australian legal practitioner and (if) of course the court is, after considering the evidence, satisfied the defence is so established.

“So that’s a direction I received with respect to the matter.”

Mr Carr said the Crown’s new position had only come to fruition about 7am on Monday.

Defence barrister Stuart Bouveng, acting on behalf of the teen, said prosecutors had obtained a new report that suggested a mental health defence had been made out at the weekend.

Acting Justice Simpson said she now had received two medical reports that both stated the teen’s mental health defence had been made out.

The Crown now did not want to pursue any other alternative position, the court heard.

The main issue then turned to whether the new mental health act or the old one applied to the teen given she entered her plea in September 2021.

Acting Justice Simpson said under the old act she would give a verdict of not guilty on the grounds of mental illness but under the new act she would hand down a verdict of act proven but not criminally responsible.

Mr Bouveng said another feature of the new act is that a judge would not have to embark on a judge-alone trial if prosecutors and the defence agreed on a mental health defence.

The matter will return to court on Tuesday to thrash out issues on the legislation, but the trial is not expected to go ahead for five days as expected in a normal murder trial.

Instead Acting Justice Simpson will base her decision on how to sentence the teen on documents including the medical reports and an agreed fact sheet on what happened.