Three men charged with killing their wives among 10 on murder charges in same court
Three men charged separately with killing their wives were among 10 people charged with murder who faced the same court on Friday.
Three men charged with allegedly killing their wives were among 10 people appearing on separate murder charges before the same court on Friday.
The alleged murderers, who are all defending the charges, included a man charged with killing another man with a baseball bat and a 20-year-old charged with murdering his teenage girlfriend.
A teenager also faced the court charged with two other teenagers of allegedly murdering a Canberra auctioneer who was lured via the gay dating app GrindR before being beaten and having his body dumped in bushland.
NSW Supreme Court Justice Robert Hulme set down trials for six of the accused who appeared via audio visual link, some from prison, in 2022.
Defendants appeared via AVL from Parklea, Silverwater, Dillwynia, Lithgow and Bathurst prisons, and a juvenile correctional facility.
The hearings took place in the Darlinghurst Supreme Court in just over two hours on Friday.
Christopher Dawson, 72, who has pleaded not guilty, will stand trial for the alleged 1982 murder of his wife Lynette in May next year.
The court heard that Mr Dawson, who is on bail, was suffering from depression and recent injury.
“The accused has in recent times had two serious falls and has suffered serious physical injuries,” Mr Dawson’s lawyer Greg Walsh told Justice Hulme.
Mr Walsh rejected the idea of a judge-only trial, saying a jury trial was his client’s preference.
Altaf Hossien, who is accused of the alleged 2019 stabbing death of his wife Syeda Nirupama, has been deemed fit to be tried, the Supreme Court heard on Friday.
But Justice Hulme returned the case to the Local Court to wait for psychological tests to consider a possible defence of substantial impairment by abnormality of mind.
Mr Baltij Singh Lailna appeared by video link from the Metropolitan Remand & Reception prison at Silverwater and was remanded for a fitness hearing in September.
Mr Lailna is accused of allegedly killing his wife, Kamaljeet Singh, an Indian student, at Quaker’s Hill last year.
Jordan Brodie Miller pleaded not guilty on Friday to murdering his 18-year-old girlfriend Emerald Wardle in the Hunter Valley in June last year.
He formally entered a plea of not guilty to the charge of manslaughter of Ms Wardle, which was not accepted by the Crown Prosecutor, David Scully.
Christopher Dawson, charged with the alleged murder of his first wife, Lynette Dawson
Christopher Dawson, now aged 72, has pleaded not guilty to the alleged murder of his first wife Lynette, the mother of their two daughters, who vanished in January 1982, aged 34.
Mr Dawson reported his wife missing six weeks later, but her remains have never been found.
The following year he married Joanne Curtis, a woman he met when she was a schoolgirl and who had come to live with Mr Dawson and his wife in the family home.
Two coronial inquests into Lynette’s disappearance were held in 2001 and 2003.
In December 2018, NSW Police extradited Mr Dawson from Queensland and charged him with Lynette’s alleged murder.
His eight-week trial will commence on May 9 next year.
Altaf Hossain, accused of the alleged murder of his wife Syeda Nirupama
Syeda Nirupama, 33, was stabbed to death in the garage of her Minto home in southwestern Sydney on Easter Sunday 2019.
Her children, aged seven and nine, were sleeping in their bedrooms in the house nearby.
Ms Nirupama’s husband, case worker Altaf Hossain, then aged 49, was charged with her alleged murder.
Friends described Mrs Hossain as a “good mum” and said she had supported the family by cooking traditional Bangladeshi sweets and selling them to shops in Minto.
Mr Hossain’s case has been returned to Campbelltown Local Court on July 28 to wait for psychological tests and consider a possible defence of substantial impairment by abnormality of mind.
Justice Robert Hulme said this was done under the early appropriate guilty plea scheme.
Baltej Singh Lailna is accused of allegedly murdering his wife, Kamaljeet Sidhu
Kamaljeet Sidhu, 27, was an Indian student living in Quakers Hill in western Sydney with her husband of four years when she was found stabbed to death on May 20 last year.
Her husband, Naltej Singh Lailna, was arrested and charged with Ms Sidhu’s alleged murder.
Mr Lailna will face a fitness to plea hearing in the NSW Supreme Court in September.
Hanny Papanicolaou, charged with alleged murder of her employer Marjorie Welsh, 92
Marjorie Welsh, 92, was found bleeding on the floor of her Ashfield home on January 2, 2019 after a frenzied attack.
Ms Welsh, who activated her personal alarm, had been bashed with her walking stick, attacked with a knife and had pieces of blue kitchen pottery embedded in her scalp.
Hanny Papanicolaou, then aged 35, who had been employed as Ms Welsh’s cleaner, was charged with Ms Welsh’s attempted murder.
The charge was upgraded to murder when Ms Welsh died in February 2019.
Ms Pananicolaou, who has pleaded not guilty to murder, will face a three week trial next year, starting on January 24.
The NSW Supreme Court heard on Friday that the accused faces neuropsychological testing and hopes to enter a substantial impairment plea, which has yet to be considered by the Crown.
Clinton Brian Williams is charged with the alleged murder of Dennis Dalton
Clinton Brian Williams is charged with the alleged murder of Dennis Dalton, who was allegedly bashed to death with a baseball bat in mid-2013.
Mr Dalton died in Gold Coast Hospital 19 days after he was found at his home in Goonellabah in northern NSW.
He was allegedly struck during the last of three altercations which erupted in the early hours of June 6, 2013.
Mr Williams entered a plea of not guilty to murder on Friday and will face a six week trial in Coffs Harbour Supreme Court in May next year.
Emmett Sheard, Matthew Bennis and Luke Welford are charged in connection with the alleged stabbing death of Parklea prison inmate, Michael Black
Police allege 33-year-old Black, of Berkeley, was stabbed multiple times with a shiv at Parklea Correctional Centre just after 12.30pm on April 21 last year.
Emmett Sheard pleaded not guilty to Mr Black’s murder on Friday.
Matthew Bennis and Luke Welford pleaded not guilty to being accessories after the fact of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.
The three who appeared via video link from Lithgow and Bathurst prisons on Friday were all inmates at Parklea correctional centre with Michael Black.
Mr Black was in a common area waiting to enter a designated audiovisual suite for a scheduled court appearance when the alleged attack took place.
He was treated at the jail by St Vincent’s Health staff, but died before paramedics arrived.
Jordan Brodie Miller is charged with the alleged murder of his teenage girlfriend, Emerald Wardle, 18
Emerald Wardle, 18, died at the home of the parents of her boyfriend at Maitland in the NSW Hunter Valley in June 2020.
Jordan Brodie Miller, 20, was charged with her alleged strangulation murder.
The teenager was described by friends as “kind and fun-loving”.
Mr Miller pleaded not guilty to Ms Wardle’s murder on Friday and will face a four week trial next year starting on May 16.
Jenny Niguidula was charged with the murder of her flatmate, Rhonie Apostol
Jenny Niguidula and Rhonie Apostol were both Filipino nationals and business partners sharing a residence at South Wentworthville in 2019.
Mr Apostol was found dead in November 2019 with a stab wound to his chest.
Police arrested Ms Niguidula the following month in Leumeah and charged her with Mr Apostol’s alleged murder.
Ms Niguidula pleaded not guilty to murder on Friday and will stand trial in the NSW Supreme Court for four weeks, starting on March 21 next year.
‘WD’ and two other teens are charged over the alleged murder of Peter Keeley who was lured via GrindR and killed, with his body dumped in bushland
Auctioneer and football official Peter Keeley was allegedly murdered after he was lured via the gay dating app GrindR on February 2, 2020.
The 56-year-od borrowed a friend’s car and drove to Bateman’s Bay from Canberra.
A man walking his dog found Mr Keeley’s body in bushland at Broulee.
His body had been tied with duct tape and he had suffered head and facial injuries.
Police have charged three teenagers all aged 17 at the time of the alleged murder.
Two pleaded not guilty in March and a third, WD, entered a plea of not guilty to murder on Friday.
They will face a three week trial in Wollongong court in April 2022.
Terence Jackson is charged with the alleged murder of his elderly neighbour, Paul Hughes
Mr Hughes and Terence Jackson who were neighbours in the Sydney suburb of Croydon got into a fight over a clothes line.
Terence Edward Jackson, 41, has officially denied murdering Paul Hughes after entering a plea of not guilty in May and indicating he planned to mount a mental health defence, arguing he was mentally impaired at the time
Mr Jackson is accused of allegedly running down Mr Hughes with a vehicle, after which the 77-year-old highly regarded community member died.
On Friday, the case was stood over until August’s arraignment hearings while the possibility of a mental health defence is considered.