Colin Glass death: Matthew Ronald Bennis, Kaia Ridgeway, Sheree Cross, Jodie Mackenzie, Lauren Brown in court
More than two years on, the shocking case of a man dropped outside a Mid-North Coast hospital by his niece with fatal stab wounds will soon be resolved.
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More than two years on, the shocking case of a man dropped outside Taree Hospital by his niece with fatal stab wounds will soon be resolved, with three of the five co-accused to be sentenced next month.
Two others have already been dealt with in court.
Delays in the preparation of vital reports including a blood splatter analysis have drawn the criticism of Taree magistrate Allison Hawkins, prompting her at one stage to say: “If only the public knew what was going on in this place.”
In the early hours of April 23, 2023, Colin Glass was stabbed at a block of flats in Tuncurry after an argument about drugs and was driven to Manning Base Hospital by his niece Lauren Kaye Brown.
Mr Glass died before he made it inside the emergency ward.
Brown later pleaded guilty to hindering the police investigation into his death.
In August last year she was sentenced in the Sydney Downing Centre District Court to a prison term of one year and seven months, to be served by way of intensive correction order in the community.
As part of her sentence she was ordered to abstain from drugs and not to associate with the four other co-accused.
After Mr Glass was found dead outside the hospital police launched an investigation focusing on a block of flats along Heath Ave in Tuncurry.
About a week later Matthew Ronald Bennis, 31 at the time, and Kaia Ridgeway, 25, were arrested at a motor inn on The Lakes Way, Forster.
Bennis was initially hit with a murder charge and Ridgeway with concealing a serious indictable offence.
But now it can be revealed that the murder charge has been withdrawn and Bennis has pleaded guilty to manslaughter.
He has also pleaded guilty to indictable drug supply.
Bennis, who has been remanded in custody since his arrest, will be sentenced for these two offences in the Sydney District Court on July 17.
Meanwhile co-accused Ridgeway has pleaded guilty to being an accessory after the fact to manslaughter and will also be sentenced on July 17 at the same court.
Ridgeway’s charges of concealing a serious indictable offence and being an accessory after the fact to murder were withdrawn.
She is currently on bail reporting to Wollongong Police Station seven days a week and ordered to stay away from the Forster Tuncurry area and abstain from drugs and alcohol.
In the weeks following the arrests of Bennis and Ridgeway police arrested two more women – Sheree Cross and Jodie Mackenzie, who were both 50 at the time.
Cross was charged with being an accessory after the fact to murder and accessory after the fact to malicious wounding.
These two charges have now been withdrawn and she has pleaded guilty to hindering an investigation into a serious indictable offence committed by another person.
She is also due to be sentenced on July 17 at the same court as her co-accused.
Cross is on bail, reporting once a week to the Forster Police station and is on a night-time curfew and must not take drugs, drink alcohol or go to any venues where it is sold.
The outcome of Mackenzie’s charge of hindering the apprehension of a person who committed a serious offence was suppressed by Taree District Court in March.
Mackenzie was granted bail in an emotional Supreme Court appearance in November 2023 after spending more than five months remanded in custody.
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Originally published as Colin Glass death: Matthew Ronald Bennis, Kaia Ridgeway, Sheree Cross, Jodie Mackenzie, Lauren Brown in court
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