By Erin Pearson and Cassandra Morgan
A man accused of beating his live-in care worker to death with a hammer has fronted court charged with murder, days after Kenneth Magee was found critically injured inside their Werribee home.
A distressed John Sheffield, 55, faced Melbourne Magistrates’ Court, crying and attempting to communicate with friends and family in the court on Wednesday.
Defence lawyer Jacqui Kennedy said her client lived with significant medical issues including schizophrenia, diabetes, a chronic heart condition and epilepsy.
She asked that her client be able to access his medications urgently.
“I have medical authority. I’ll get a list [of medications] to custody today,” Kennedy said.
Police were called to the home in Everwin Drive, Werribee, about 7.10pm on Monday after Magee, 62, was found inside with life-threatening injuries.
Carer Kenneth Magee was found with life-threatening injuries in a Werribee home on Monday.
He was taken to hospital but died several hours later.
Sheffield was arrested at the scene and later charged with murder.
Forensic investigators and detectives combed through the Werribee property on Tuesday in an attempt to piece together what happened in the lead-up to the death, the seventh in the past week being investigated by the homicide squad.
The court heard an autopsy still needed to be performed, with the prosecution flagging significant delays would mean it could take up to 14 weeks for a comprehensive report from the Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine (VIFM) to be filed, more than double the six-week time frame the court mandates.
Magistrate Felicity Broughton denied the prosecution’s application for more time to compile their brief of evidence and said any delays should not hold up court proceedings.
“I don’t care what VIFM is doing, these matters need to be dealt with. I’m not going to have the tail wagging the dog,” she said.
“We have court processes about timelines. Their processes will not dictate the court’s processes.”
During Wednesday’s brief court hearing, Sheffield appeared confused as he sat in the dock dressed in a navy and yellow T-shirt, as a woman in the court blew him kisses.
Accused Werribee killer John Sheffield.
Another man seated nearby said, “love you, mate” as Sheffield was led away into custody.
Broughton ordered Sheffield return to court in February, once the police case against him has been compiled.
Magee’s killing is one of seven in under a week being investigated by the homicide squad.
On Thursday, the bodies of Sandra Dobrila, 41, and a 38-year-old man were found inside a home in James Street, Mordialloc.
Forensic police at the property in Everwin Drive, Werribee, where Magee was found critically injured.Credit: Jason South
On Friday, Hugh Brannan, 30, was stabbed multiple times during an alleged home invasion inside his apartment in Iffla Street, South Melbourne, shortly after 7.30pm.
About half an hour after the South Melbourne killing, police were called to perform a welfare check at a brothel in Melbourne’s inner west. A 62-year-old Footscray woman was found dead at the property in Cowper Street, Footscray.
Then, on Monday, the bodies of 29-year-old Rye resident Jack Gilmour and a woman named Charlyze “Charli” Hayter were found after a gun fight at a home on the Mornington Peninsula.
On Wednesday, Premier Jacinta Allan said: “Our thoughts and sympathies are with the families and loved ones who have lost people they love in such tragic circumstances. This sort of violence will be thoroughly investigated by Victoria Police.”
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