Pod Insights The Case Of 07 Wheelie Bin Murder I A surprise twist About this episode Following a week of closed court deliberations, the murder trial of Geoffrey McLean has been abandoned — a mistrial has been declared.
In this episode, Eva Blandis explains to Stephen Stockwell what happened, who was at fault and what comes next.
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.
Transcript 2,765 words · 10 speakers
0:00 Speaker 00 In an ordinary Sydney suburb, a family lives unnoticed.
0:04 Speaker 01 He came across so innocent.
0:05 Speaker 00 Father and son keep mostly to themselves.
0:08 Speaker 02 We didn't go beyond the friendly nod or hello.
0:11 Speaker 00 But behind closed doors.
0:12 Speaker 01 Something's gone wrong, big time. If you don't make phone calls, nobody can tap you.
0:17 Speaker 00 A new three-part series investigates how the road to Bondi began long before the first shots rang out. The Road to Bondi. Search Background Briefing wherever you get your podcasts.
0:30 Speaker 03 ABC Listen, podcasts, radio, news, music and more.
0:46 Speaker 04 For almost two weeks, there has been furious discussion behind closed doors at the Adelaide Supreme Court. And now we know why. There has been a mistrial. I'm Stephen Stockwell. This is episode seven of the case of the wheelie bin murder.
1:01 Speaker 05 A gruesome discovery on vacant land in Adelaide's north. Police say the remains belong to missing man Geoffrey McLean.
1:08 Speaker 06 When Geoffrey's body was located, it had been dismembered. It was located in a wheelie bin.
1:13 Speaker 05 Four people have been arrested in relation to his death.
1:15 Speaker 07 A woman who's accused of murdering her ex-partner.
1:18 Speaker 08 They're hopeful they can provide relief to his family.
1:24 Speaker 04 There is so much that goes into a trial. There are dozens of witnesses, there are families hoping for answers. And in this case, there are four accused, sitting in the dock, fighting the charges that they're up against. And now, all of these people will have to come back and do this again. As the murder trial of Shuri Glastonbury and Mark Murphy has been declared a mistrial. Keeping an eye on all of this as it has unfolded has been ABC Adelaide court reporter Eva Blandis. Eva, what a week.
1:54 Speaker 09 Hey, Stocky. Yeah, it's been a long week and a lot of waiting and, yeah, a very disappointing outcome.
2:01 Speaker 04 Yeah, totally. You know, there's so many people that would have had so much riding on this, right? Talk us through what's happened here. How did we get to this point?
2:11 Speaker 09 So it turns out that Supreme Court Justice Adam Kimber has had to declare a mistrial after a juror has come forward and admitted to doing their own research on perjury. And so now the jury has been discharged, the trial has been abandoned and another trial will need to be done eventually.
2:31 Speaker 04 Yeah, I mean, a trial being abandoned, this is actually the first time we've covered a mistrial on, on the case of, um, you know, I can't imagine what that moment would have been like in court as, as Justice Kimber is kind of making this announcement. What was the mood in, in the courtroom, in the, the kind of the giant ceremonial court in the Adelaide courthouse as, as this was handed down and announced?
2:55 Speaker 09 Look, I think there was a lot of frustration there. You could sort of hear the frustration in Justice Kimber's voice. Um, some of the jurors looked confused, others were a bit poker faced. Um, I sort of had my suspicions only because the court had been closed for so long and of course the, the council knew. So I think there was a bit more acceptance in, in the body of the court and at the bar table, but the jury was certainly, they were mixed, their emotions were sort of all different.
3:28 Speaker 04 Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I mean, yeah, as we spoke about in our last episode, um, the court has been closed for, you know, a couple of weeks at this point as well. I mean, how did the court hear about this misconduct? Did, did someone dob in a juror to Justice Kimber or did, did they get caught? How did this unfold?
3:46 Speaker 09 Yeah, so the issue that actually caused the mistrial, it was the juror themselves who came forward and said, look, I did do some research. Um, by the sounds of things, they were then questioned about what they did with that research and it, it all came out that he or she had shared that information with the rest of the jury. It then of course makes it really hard to, to know who knows and whether it's going to affect. So that led us to where we are now.
4:15 Speaker 04 Yeah, and I guess, I mean, all of the jurors are kind of told, right, that they, they shouldn't do this, this research and, I mean, in a way, I guess, kind of credit to this juror for coming forward?
4:26 Speaker 09 Yeah, look, Kimber did actually use the word congratulate. He said he congratulated them for coming forward and, um, said he was grateful.
4:38 Speaker 09 It it is what he had asked them to do, but of course he had also asked them not to do their own research.
4:44 Speaker 04 Hmm.
4:44 Speaker 09 Um, so, yeah, I I think it's just sort of probably a relief in some ways that this jury actually admitted to what they did rather than waiting to hear it from someone else. But i- it still is very frustrating for everyone in that courtroom. And I I actually should have mentioned before, of course, you've got four people in in the dock. They have been waiting since they were arrested in twenty twenty three to to go to trial. And and now it's just being postponed yet again.
5:17 Speaker 04 Yeah, exactly. I mean, you know, the the four people who are on trial in this in this case have all pleaded not guilty to the the crimes that they've been charged with. You've got Shree Glastonbury and Mark Murphy, who've been charged with murder, and they both pleaded not guilty to that. You've also got Peter Murphy and Lynette Sexton, who've been charged with assisting an offender. Both of them have pleaded not guilty to that. They've been in the the court the whole time. They've been defending themselves and now they're going to have to come back and at some point, I guess, do that again. I mean, Eva, we would be lying if we said we didn't have suspicions. This was coming up, you know, as you you mentioned earlier. There's this kind of feeling, right? And in our last episode, I we sort of walked around this, you know, it was something that both of us were thinking
5:57 Speaker 04 that we talked about before going into it. But we didn't, we couldn't say anything when we were recording that episode just over a week ago. Why couldn't we talk about it at that point?
6:07 Speaker 09 Well, we didn't know and neither did the jury. I just think we obviously had our suspicions because we've been here, done this before.
6:16 Speaker 04 Hmm.
6:16 Speaker 09 Um, but the decision hadn't been made yet. Obviously, there were lots of talks going on. The the court was closed for almost two weeks. There were lots of things. There would be things we wouldn't know about now and the jury wouldn't know about. I'm sure.
6:32 Speaker 04 Hmm.
6:34 Speaker 09 But with all of those discussions, it actually wasn't the original issue which caused the mistrial. It was an issue, the issue that we now know of, and that wasn't raised until yesterday.
6:46 Speaker 04 Hmm.
6:47 Speaker 09 So beforehand, um, it appears from what Justice Kimber said today that someone else had done some research into perjury too. But the information that they got was incorrect. So the information they shared was incorrect. And it looks like, um, from what Justice Kimber said today, that he felt as though they could continue on and that that wouldn't affect the trial. However, it was this issue that arose yesterday that, that he had to draw the line. It was too far gone.
7:20 Speaker 04 Yeah. I mean, you know, something I'd been thinking about over the last couple of weeks was that, you know, for these discussions to be happening in a closed court, it, you know, and to really kind of work through that, right? It didn't feel like a decision that, that anybody wanted to make. You know, so much goes into a trial, as we've talked about, there's so many people involved in this one, so much money involved in a trial as well. These things cost a fortune. So, you know, there's all that to kind of consider as well. So it really does not sound like this was an easy decision for Justice Kimber to make. Why did he make it in the end, though?
7:52 Speaker 09 Well, look, it needed to be done to ensure that these four defendants got a fair trial. You know, all have pleaded not guilty, like you said before, and we all need to remind ourselves, especially in this case, we, we haven't heard any of the defence cases.
8:08 Speaker 04 Hmm.
8:09 Speaker 09 All defendants have the right to a trial, you know, everyone's innocent until they're proven guilty. And so you have to be sort of careful that there are reasons evidence is allowed in court and there's reasons that some evidence isn't. Um, and when you start getting some rogue jurors in there and information you can't control and al- also you don't know, they don't know if this information is correct. I mean, I, it wasn't mentioned where they got it from. I don't know if it was from online or, or where it was from, but who knows where it's coming from? Who, who's to say it's accurate? So. Look, obviously, I'm assuming because it took so long, it wouldn't have been an easy
8:53 Speaker 09 thing to decide. And also, you know, this is the court's time, this is these lawyers' time, it's, you know, the jury's time too. And Justice Kimber, he even brought that up and apologised and said, you know, you've wasted almost two months of your life doing this and now it's all sort of wasted. So there are a lot of factors in there for him to get to this point. And I think it got, I got the impression that it was almost the last thing he wanted to do. But at the end of the day, everyone deserves a fair trial and they should get that.
9:30 Speaker 04 Yeah, it's such a clear reminder of the kind of facts that allowed in a trial, right? You know, there are so many rules and laws around, you know, how information can be presented in court, you know, what is too prejudicial, all these other bits and pieces. And it's such a clear reminder that that's the only thing the jury should be considering when they're making the decision. And soon as there's some outside information in there as well, that could poison that in some way. And I guess, yeah, Justice Kimber just couldn't be confident that it hadn't kind of poisoned them in that way. Eva, I do want to talk a little bit about perjury for a second. Am I right in thinking that's when someone lies when they're giving evidence, right?
10:03 Speaker 09 Yes, so that's true. I'm not exactly sure how this relates to the case. Of course, all of those discussions were in closed court. But all I do know is that it was that a juror was searching that and shared information. So obviously, the court decided that that was too risky. So it must play into the evidence quite a lot, but I'm not quite sure what that link is.
10:34 Speaker 04 Yeah, right. And there's no evidence that anyone's kind of perjured themselves or anything that you're aware of so far?
10:39 Speaker 09 No, no, no, not that I'm aware of, no.
10:41 Speaker 04 Yeah. I mean, this trial's been called off now. What does this mean? Another trial? When are we thinking and how does this kind of unfold from here?
10:51 Speaker 09 Yeah, so look, um, there will be another trial. Um, it's looking like that, um, may not happen until twenty twenty eight. So that's a really, really long time for these defendants to wait. But, um, I'm assuming i- it's a mix of, you know, council's availability and court availability. Um, so, yeah, i- it's a very, very, very long time for people to be waiting for a trial. And especially when two of those have been in custody since twenty twenty three.
11:28 Speaker 04 Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Um, I mean, one of the things I kind of wonder about, Eva, is the amount of time it took to make this decision. I mean, I guess the way you've explained it kind of answers some of those questions. You know, the initial discussion over those last couple of weeks and then the information that came up yesterday that kind of meant that Justice Kimber didn't have much of a choice to, um, kind of, you know, make this decision. Did he say much about what was going on there or, you know, kind of how he reached this decision?
11:56 Speaker 09 Look, it was all very brief, but really he did touch on the fact that he didn't think there was any other option. Um, he was very apologetic and he was very grateful. I mean, if, if this hadn't come out, then who knows what would have happened? I mean, I don't know what the actual information was, but it really could have jeopardised this trial further down the track. And, I mean, I'm sure it was all on their minds to, what if this came out, you know, a week before they were meant to finish hearing evidence? What would that mean? So, yeah, I, I don't think it was an easy call to make. I don't think it's ever an easy call to make, but at the end of the day, i- it's the court's purpose to give people a fair trial. And everyone has their right to a defence.
12:40 Speaker 09 And if they can't get that, then it's game over.
12:44 Speaker 04 Yeah, absolutely. Um, Eva, I expect people will have a lot of questions about what has unfolded, uh, in the last couple of weeks in Adelaide.
12:51 Speaker 09 Um, if they have them, we have an email address, the k-sir at abc.net.au.
12:56 Speaker 04 Um, Eva, will you be up for maybe jumping on, uh, next Tuesday and going through some questions as they come to us?
13:02 Speaker 09 Yeah, for sure. I can totally understand. There are probably a lot of confused listeners at home. It's, yeah, it's an unusual one.
13:10 Speaker 04 It is, yeah. And I'd love to unpack that a little bit more and kind of talk through some of the things we've seen in this trial. I mean, we won't be going into our kind of usual what we really think episodes that we do at the end of the trial, because this is a trial that is, you know, still on the cards, you know, it might be a couple of years away, but, you know, we won't want to do anything that jeopardises a fair trial for Cherie Glastonbury, Mark Murphy, Peter Murphy and Lynette Sexton, who've been all charged with crimes associated with the death of Geoffrey McLean in 2022. So, yeah, a lot to discuss, a lot to unpack. If you have any questions and things you'd like to ask us and that we can unpack in our episode on Tuesday next week, please get in touch, [email protected] . As always, make sure you get yourself around ABC Listen. It's
13:53 Speaker 04 the best place to be when we have these kind of unexpected episodes of The Case Of. If you're not listening on ABC Listen, jump on and leave us a rating and a review on whatever podcast app you find yourself deep within. It helps other people find us and listen to The Case Of. And of course, tell your friends, get them around this as well. You can listen back to all the episodes of The Case Of, the wheelie bin murder, on the ABC Listen app. Eva, really appreciate you jumping on here and kind of taking us through this really unexpected development.
14:24 Speaker 09 Yeah, you're welcome. It's, yeah, it's a lot to unpack. So another episode will be good to sort of get into the nitty gritty of it all.
14:31 Speaker 04 Yeah, absolutely. We'll be back in your feed tomorrow with another Case of the Two Intruders, and then on Tuesday next week with Eva and the Case of the Wheelie Bin Murder.
14:45 Speaker 04 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 Rollinson. This episode was produced on the land of the Ghana and we're Undrey people.
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