06 Wheelie Bin Murder | From major crime to closed court

Following an extensive search for Geoffrey McLean in 2022, SA police elevated the missing persons case to a major crime. However, for the last week the court has been closed to the public, including journalists and the jury, whilst legal argument takes place. Adelaide reporter Eva Blandis, joins Stocky from outside the court waiting for the trial to continue. If you have any questions you'd like Eva or Stocky to answer in future episodes, please email [email protected] mailto:[email protected]. The Case Of is the follow-up to the hit podcast Mushroom Case Daily, and all episodes of that show will remain available in the back catalogue of The Case Of.

• 0:00Speaker 00

  G'day, Hamish McDonald here. I'm a journalist and I've spent the last 18 months deep in the dark world of miss and disinformation. So what is the difference? Well, disinformation has malicious intent behind it. It's designed specifically to deceive using false information, kind of like propaganda. Whereas misinformation is false information that might be shared by someone who believed it to be true. So who's behind this modern form of propaganda? Find out by streaming The Matter of Fact now on ABC iView.

• 0:48Speaker 01

  For the last week, the jury has barely heard any evidence in the murder trial of Cherie Glastonbury and Mark Murphy. The court has been closed and things have been quiet, a little too quiet. I'm Stephen Stockwell. This is episode six of The Case of the Wheelie Bin Murder.

• 1:05Speaker 02

  A gruesome discovery on vacant land in Adelaide's north. Police say the remains belong to missing man Geoffrey McLean.

• 1:12Speaker 03

  When Geoffrey's body was located, it had been dismembered. It was located in a wheelie bin.

• 1:17Speaker 04

  Four people have been arrested in relation to his death. A woman who's accused of murdering her ex-partner.

• 1:22Speaker 05

  They're hopeful they can provide relief to his family.

• 1:26Speaker 01

  As the jury was hearing how the search for Geoffrey McLean moved from missing persons to major crime, the court was closed. Not even Eva Blandis, the ABC's court reporter in Adelaide, has been allowed back in there. Instead, joining us from outside of the court for this episode. G'day Eva.

• 1:42Speaker 06

  Hi, Stocky.

• 1:44Speaker 01

  Eva, I need to know why you haven't been in this room. What is, what is going on?

• 1:49Speaker 06

  Yeah, so the court's been closed now for almost a week. So I've been waiting out here, waiting for the doors to open, waiting to be let in. I mean, anything could happen, of course, and it's not something I can leave. And I want to be able to be here to get the latest news.

• 2:07Speaker 01

  Yeah, absolutely. We appreciate the dedication to join us from, from outside of court with, with all of the, the background sounds of the Adelaide CBD with you as well. I mean, you're not in that room, but, but who is in the courtroom at the moment?

• 2:21Speaker 06

  So in the room at the moment, we've got all those lawyers. As we've discussed before, there are so many. So there's two barristers, four each accused. We've got those four defendants in there. And then, of course, we've got Justice Adam Kimber, but no jury at this time.

• 2:40Speaker 01

  Yeah, okay, great. I know you need to be very careful about what we say about what's happening at the moment. So I'm not going to push you too much. I will push you a bit, but you know, we'll be gentle. Before the court closes, there was evidence that was heard by the jury, though. And I really want to talk a bit about kind of what had happened, you know, in the last week or so prior to court being closed. Because this has really revolved around how Geoffrey McLean was reported missing. Now, in this series, we've talked about how his body was found in a wheelie bin in a vacant lot. But initially, he just kind of disappeared, right, in mid-August. How did the search for him start? How did that unfold?

• 3:18Speaker 06

  So the search starts on August 29th, 2022. As we have discussed, it is when Cherie has obviously reported Geoffrey missing. So initial investigations start on the 30th of August. Helen Gia, who is no longer a member of Sapole, but was at that time, has a call with Cherie, sort of just to get the lay of the land. Then a longer call in that day. She starts doing those preliminary things, such as, you know, doing bank checks and Centrelink checks to see if he had accessed any of his accounts.

• 3:59Speaker 06

  As we know, Geoffrey was living with Cherie. But she does say in that second call with the police officer that she doesn't want Geoffrey to come home if he does turn up.

• 4:13Speaker 01

  Right, yeah. And I mean, we've heard and discussed in the podcast, you know, Cherie Glastonbury is one of the people charged with Geoffrey McLean's murder. And yeah, they had been living together for a period of time as well. And he's kind of last seen mid-August. And then, obviously, we're now at this point here, end of August. Cherie Glastonbury has called in this missing persons report. Really interesting that in that call, she says, or in one of those calls, she says that she doesn't want Geoffrey McLean coming back to the house if he is found. I mean, how was she on those calls? What did Helen Gia tell the court about her manner?

• 4:48Speaker 06

  So in those phone calls, she said she was distressed. Um, she had also said that Cherie had mentioned that they had a toxic relationship. Um, and then it's from this moment that things start getting a little bit more serious, so to speak. And Sapole put out a missing persons release the following day on the thirty first of August.

• 5:11Speaker 01

  Yeah, right. And I imagine there's kind of like a, a missing persons search that, that comes up from this point. Uh, how does that unfold? Did, did the police get very far?

• 5:21Speaker 06

  So as we know, they did those bank searches, so they get the results back. And they see that Jeffrey hasn't accessed his account since August eighteenth. Which we know is around that time he was last seen alive. Um, they were so called to hospitals, um, around Adelaide to see if he'd turned up there, but that was to no avail. Um, and then they ended up contacting quite a lot of friends. Um, some of those we've heard about before, as in his mates that he'd been with at the pub. Um, so really just that preliminary, trying to figure out where he could be.

• 6:00Speaker 01

  Yeah, right, okay. And, you know, they, they kind of go through this process for a couple of weeks. And then it transfers into, you know, being a major crime. It becomes a little bit more serious than kind of a general missing person search. Did you hear much about what it was that tipped this over into being a major crime?

• 6:20Speaker 06

  So we didn't hear much about that, but as we know, he just disappeared, in thin air. So we did hear from Detective Sergeant Daniel Ford. Um, on the thirteenth of September, after he'd been briefed with that major crime report. He starts going to the last known locations of Jeffrey. And we've heard before that he'd been at the Morrison Lakes Hotel, so he's been going to places like that. Then they engage in a large scale search of waterways and parkland around the northern suburbs. Um, and then eventually they go to Cherie Glastonbury's house. And that is the property in Leicester Grove at Andrew's Farm.

• 7:02Speaker 01

  Got it, right. So they're, they're searching through Cherie Glastonbury's house. Uh, kind of looking for anything that might give them a clue as to what's happened to Geoffrey McLean.

• 7:10Speaker 06

  Yes, yeah, exactly.

• 7:12Speaker 01

  And what do you see of this, this search of Cherie Glastonbury's house, Eva?

• 7:17Speaker 06

  So we don't see anything of the actual search, but we do see some body worn vision from when police first go, the major crime police first go to the house and start having those conversations with Cherie, letting her know that they will be searching her house, letting her know that they will be looking for things such as his telephone and electronic devices. And we just see Cherie interacting with police in those videos.

• 7:44Speaker 01

  Yeah, right. So, you know, this is all evidence of Detective Sergeant Daniel Ford. He's the guy leading the major crimes investigation, obviously looking at lots of different bits and pieces. You know, the search is one part, you know, the, the waterways, the parkland, all of that stuff around the northern suburbs of Adelaide. Was he the last witness before the court was closed?

• 8:03Speaker 06

  From memory, yes, but to be completely honest, I've lost track, given how long I've been out here waiting.

• 8:10Speaker 01

  And that was last Monday, right? So court was closed. Am I right in thinking, you know, Tuesday, you know, a week ago from where we are now?

• 8:17Speaker 06

  Yeah, yeah.

• 8:18Speaker 01

  And no jury? What's, what's going on? Do you know?

• 8:22Speaker 06

  No, so there's been no jury. There's just been lots of legal discussion. Um, the public and the media haven't been allowed in the room.

• 8:30Speaker 01

  Yeah. This whole closed court thing is very new to me. You know, I'm used to kind of legal discussion happening during trials. And usually when that happens, you know, the jury's out of the room, but the media is still able to sit in there, is to take notes on what happened. We just can't report what's said when the jury's out of the room. I mean, Eva, what are some of the reasons that, that courts are closed, like the one has been in, in Adelaide?

• 8:51Speaker 06

  Look, the possibilities are endless. It's ultimately to protect, you know, the, the justice system, to protect what's going on there. Um, it's obviously not something I'm very across because usually I'm not in there.

• 9:06Speaker 01

  Has the jury not been in at all? I mean, again, I'm asking you to peer through a, a very opaque door, probably completely solid door. Um, but has the jury not been in at all? Or are they coming in for short periods during the day and then being sent away?

• 9:20Speaker 06

  I'm actually not sure.

• 9:22Speaker 01

  Yeah, okay. Uh, and another one, and I realise we're getting into piece of string territory here, uh, but what does this mean for the, for the timeline of this trial? You know, a delay of, of a week like this?

• 9:32Speaker 06

  Look, I would say, and this is just very much a general observation, that we will see it go longer than we initially expected.

• 9:41Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah, we were looking at three months initially, we've been going for, you know, over six weeks at this stage, so, um, yeah, still a lot to come and this is adding to that timeline, you know, a huge undertaking, right, you've got four defendants in this situation, two people accused of murder, another two accused of assisting an offender, so, yeah, a lot to go through, a lot to go on. Um, Eva, you're sitting outside the Adelaide Supreme Court, you know, do you know when you might hear more, do you know when there might be something happening?

• 10:09Speaker 06

  I don't, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed for some time later today, or at least this week.

• 10:17Speaker 01

  Yeah, no, I appreciate you, uh, bringing us up to speed like this, Eva, dialing in from outside the Adelaide courthouse to, uh, to make sure the case of the Wheelie Bin murder listeners, uh, are not, uh, left hanging as to what's unfolding inside that courtroom. Uh, as always, the best place for updates is ABC Listen, uh, you can hear all of the latest from there, all of the details with the case of, and of course, if you're looking for further updates, any of the news around what's going on here, jump on the ABC News website, that'll be where you can find the latest on, uh, on Eva's coverage. Eva, thank you for joining us from, from outside court for this episode.

• 10:52Speaker 06

  Thank you for having me.

• 11:00Speaker 01

  The case of the Wheelie Bin murder is produced by ABC Audio Studios and ABC News. This episode was reported by Eva Blandis and presented by me, Stephen Stockwell. Our supervising producer is Greg Muller and our executive producer is Claire Rawlinson. This episode was produced on the land of the Gana and We're Untree People.