Sydney beheading accused Jessica Camilleri trial date set down for November
A young Sydney woman accused of cutting off her mother Rita’s head with kitchen knives in their St Clair home has had her trial date set down in the Supreme Court.
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A young Sydney woman accused of cutting off her mother’s head with kitchen knives has had her trial date set down for November, a court has been told.
Jessica Camilleri, 25, appeared in the NSW Supreme Court on Friday after pleading not guilty to murdering her mother Rita in their St Claire home last year.
Lawyers for Camilleri had wanted her to have a judge-alone trial but that application was refused and she will be tried in front of a jury.
Justice Robert Hulme QC set down a trial date of November 30 and said it would likely last for five days.
“Sure, thank you very much your honour - see you then,” Camilleri said on a video link from jail dressed in her prison greens and with her hair tied in a bunch.
Defence barrister Nathan Steel told the court he wanted to have an agreed set of facts settled before the trial began.
“It would be good if those agreed facts could be settled well in advance of the trial so we don’t have any hiccups,” he said.
Justice Hulme said prosecutors had indicated they would provide a draft set of agreed facts to Mr Steel by October 30.
Police allege Camilleri killed her 57-year-old mother in their home before dialling triple-0 and telling authorities what she had allegedly done.
It is alleged she then went outside before police arrived and later charged her with murder.
Camilleri’s sister Kristi Torrisi previously said outside court she was “going through hell”.
“My mother and my sister are both gone,” she said.
“Jess is really, really not well, I can’t bring myself to talk about what we’re going through.”