Accused killer spent night drinking, smoking cannabis with mother of Wangaratta schoolgirl Zoe Buttigieg before her death, court told
THE man accused of the rape and murder of schoolgirl Zoe Buttigieg spent hours drinking and smoking cannabis with her mother before the girl’s body was found, a court has heard.
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THE man accused of the rape and murder of schoolgirl Zoe Buttigieg spent hours drinking and smoking cannabis with her mother before the girl’s body was found, a court has heard.
Bowe Maddigan is facing Wangaratta Magistrates’s Court charged with the murder of Zoe, 11, who was found dead in her Inchbold Street home at 11am on October 25 last year.
The court heard Mr Maddigan joined Zoe’s mother, Janelle Saunders, and others in a marathon drinking and cannabis session that lasted until 7am on the morning of Zoe’s rape and murder.
Ms Saunders said she had met Mr Maddigan, who had recently been released from prison, just a week earlier through a mutual friend.
Ms Saunders described Mr Maddigan as “very deep” and “artistic” and said he had been talking rapidly and jumping from topic to topic in the hours before the alleged murder.
Ms Saunders said she went to bed at 7am on Sunday, October 25, after drinking bourbon and coke for almost 12 hours.
Zoe was found dead four hours later.
Several hours earlier Mr Maddigan had been picked up by police in a dishevelled state walking barefoot along the Hume Freeway.
Magistrate Jonathan Klestadt refused media access to witness statements and key documents outlining the prosecution case, saying that he was concerned public interest in the case may sway witnesses or jurors at trial.
“This is a particularly serious and appalling example of the crime of homicide,” Mr Klestadt said.
Maddigan has pleaded not guilty, and the court heard the only issue that will be raised in the preliminary hearing “will be one of mental impairment”.
The hearing continues.