St Clair beheading: Jessica Camilleri recovers from her own injuries
A young Sydney woman who allegedly cut off her mother’s head with kitchen knives has recovered from her own injuries she suffered on the night of the incident and fronted court today.
Police & Courts
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A young Sydney woman who allegedly cut off her mother’s head has recovered from her own injuries she suffered on the night of the incident.
Jessica Camilleri appeared via audiovisual link in Penrith Local Court on Friday without a big cast on her right arm that doctors had put on her after she allegedly decapitated her mother Rita with kitchen knives in their St Clair home.
Wearing prison greens and seated with a minder at Silverwater jail, the 25-year-old watched on as Magistrate Geoffrey Hiatt said a case conference would be held in March when her lawyer Amanda Coultas and prosecutors can discuss the case.
The case conference will help Camilleri’s legal team decide whether she should plead guilty or not guilty to her charge of murder and offers can also be made during the meeting.
Mr Hiatt told Camilleri that if she pleads guilty she could get a discount on her sentence.
“The amount of discount depends on when you plead guilty,” he said.
“The court’s been advised that a case conference has been arranged for March 12.
“(I will) adjourn to March 27 for a case conference certificate mention on that day.”
If Camilleri pleads guilty her case will be sent to the Supreme Court for sentence and if she pleads not guilty it will be sent to the same court for a trial.
In an earlier court appearance, she broke down in tears and spoke frequently before a magistrate advised her to be quiet.
But in court on Friday she was calm, with Mr Hiatt saying her lawyer would speak to her “in due court” to which she replied: “thank you, your honour”.
NSW Police Sergeant Paul Farrow previously told a court that officers could not take samples of Camilleri’s fingerprints because the injuries on her hands were so severe on the night of the alleged murder last July.
Police allege Camilleri killed her 57-year-old mother in the kitchen area of their house before calling triple-0 and telling authorities what she had allegedly done.
It is alleged she then went outside and dropped Rita’s head in a neighbour’s front yard before police arrived on scene and later charged her with murder.
She did not apply for bail and is due back in court in March.