Pilliga murder trial hinges on mental state of man who killed his father
Robbie Wheeldon's Supreme Court murder trial is being held at Moree. (ABC: Jennifer Ingall)
In short:
Robbie Wheeldon is being tried for the murder of his 59-year-old father, who was found dead in his front yard at Pilliga in August 2023.
He has pleaded not guilty by reason of mental health impairment, and the trial outcome will hinge on his mental state at the time of the killing.
What's next?
The trial was set down for two weeks, but the judge is now expected to deliver a verdict on Wednesday afternoon.
A Supreme Court judge has retired to consider his verdict in a murder trial that will hinge on the mental state of a man who has admitted to killing his father in 2023.
Robbie Wheeldon, then 25, was charged with one count of murder after Malcolm Wheeldon, 59, was found with critical injuries in his front yard at Pilliga, in north-west NSW.
The accused has pleaded not guilty by reason of mental health impairment.
"It is not in contention whether Mr Wheeldon killed the man," Judge Desmond Fagan told the court during the judge-only Supreme Court trial in Moree.
"[The trial] is proceeding on the basis of a mental health impairment at the time of the offence."
Unpredictable behaviour
Crown prosecutor Neriss Keay told the court CCTV video evidence and police body-worn cameras showed the "state of the accused and his state of mind" at the time of the alleged offence.
"[Malcolm Wheeldon] was stabbed multiple times, he was also strangled. The stabbing is the cause of death," she said.
Robbie Wheeldon's girlfriend at the time of the incident, Danielle Newman, told the court he had not slept in the "two, three days" before the stabbing.
Robbie Wheeldon, Malcolm Wheeldon and Ms Newman were in the rural NSW home in the hours before the alleged murder.
"[Robbie] would be talking out loud to nobody, we had been be arguing," Ms Newman said.
Ms Newman said she feared for their safety as he became more unpredictable and aggressive.
The court heard she eventually locked herself in a bathroom.
"[He] was saying things, I felt threatened, he said I was a bowling pin and he was going to strike me,"Ms Newman said.
"[He] came in and ripped the door, he just shook it and it started to crack and come open."
The court heard a toxicology report showed Robbie Wheeldon was not under the influence of drugs at the time of the alleged offence.
CCTV footage from roughly an hour before the stabbing was played in court, showing Robbie Wheeldon running in and out of the back door of the house while speaking unintelligible sentences.
Ms Newman told the court she tried to run to a neighbour's house in the moments before the fatal stabbing.
"I came out the bathroom and that's when Robbie shoved Malcolm, he was on the ground," Ms Newman said.
"[Robbie] was trying to choke him, he was trying to strangle him," Neighbour Warwick Hall, known as Sparkie, told the court.
"I saw Robbie with blood all over himself, mainly on his knees or maybe chest."
The court also heard several confessions from Robbie Wheeldon captured on police body-worn cameras.
Disturbed thoughts
Forensic psychiatrist Gerald Chew testified that Robbie Wheeldon was "acutely unwell and unfit" at the time of the alleged offence.
"It was a psychotic moment that disturbed his thought,"he said.
Dr Chew said he met with Robbie Wheeldon in custody three times following the event.
"He couldn't give an accurate history of anything when I first saw him, the third time, he could," he said.
"He told me he thought his father was going to rape his girlfriend."
Dr Chew told the court it was likely the accused suffered from schizophrenia, and was not aware his actions were wrong at the time of the offence.
"He has had severe depressive episodes of psychosis … he had chronic issues that's for sure," he said.
The trial was originally scheduled to run for two weeks, but Supreme Court Judge Desmond Fagen told the court he would deliver a verdict on Wednesday afternoon.
"The oral evidence from psychiatrists has resolved reservations or doubts about whether the accused was affected by the consumption of methamphetamine," he said.
"It has been explained that he was suffering from a chronic illness."