The man accused of murdering schoolgirl Charlise Mutten has blamed inconsistencies in his versions of events on his confusion over details, including when the nine-year-old was killed.
Justin Stein has pleaded not guilty to murdering Charlise in January 2022, claiming it was the girl’s mother, Kallista Mutten, who shot her.
Charlise’s body was found dumped by the Colo River, north-west of Sydney, four days after she was reported missing, with gunshot wounds to her head and lower back.
Stein has admitted dumping the girl’s body and lying to police in initial interviews, but he claims Mutten put Charlise’s body in the barrel on the back of his ute without his knowledge.
However, phone calls from jail between Stein and his mother Annemie contained different versions to what he told the court as he appeared as the defence’s only scheduled witness.
“There’s quite a number of mistakes in these phone calls,” Stein said.
Inconsistencies included the time of night when he said Charlise was shot and when he became aware her body was in a barrel on the back of his ute.
In phone recordings played to the court, Stein told his mother that Charlise was shot in the “wee hours” of Thursday morning on January 13, despite him testifying in court that she was shot shortly after 9pm the previous day.
On Tuesday, crown prosecutor Ken McKay SC suggested Stein changed his version of events after reading a police brief of evidence contradicting his timeline.
“There’s a mistake there … for when it actually happened,” Stein said.
“There’s a bit of confusion.”
The day after he claims Mutten shot her daughter, Stein was caught on camera buying bags of sand from Bunnings, which he says were for a patio he planned on resurfacing.
Stein told the court he was unaware Charlise’s body was on the back of his ute until later, when the barrel came loose and he pulled over to refasten it.
He said he vomited when he made the grisly discovery.
However, in another call with his mother, Stein said Mutten told him Charlise was in the barrel while he was still at Bunnings.
“She goes, ‘she’s on the back of the ute’ and I f—ing panicked,” Stein told his mother.
Under cross-examination, he told the court: “I’m not sure why I said that last part.”
“Just more confusion?” McKay said.
“Yeah,” Stein replied.
Charlise had been visiting her mother and Stein, who were in a relationship at the time, over Christmas.
During the visit, the group spent their time between a Mount Wilson property owned by Stein’s mother and a caravan at the Riviera Ski Park, about a 90-minute drive away.
Prosecutors allege Charlise spent the night alone with Stein at the Mount Wilson property on January 11 and he killed her either that night or the next day.
During his evidence on Monday, Stein agreed to having spent that night at the property with Charlise. But he said the girl was alive the next day and went with him to pick Mutten up from the caravan before all three went to Sydney.
According to Stein’s account, the trio returned to Mount Wilson on the night of January 12, and he was working in a shed on the property shortly after 9pm when he heard a gunshot.
“I went outside the shed … that’s when I heard Charlise screaming, ‘mummy, no’, and then bang, there was a second gunshot,” Stein said.
Mutten has denied any involvement in her daughter’s death. She broke down in tears when faced with the accusation from Stein’s lawyer during her own evidence.
The trial continues.
-AAP
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