The alleged killer of Ballarat mother Samantha Murphy is expected to attend his next court appearance from prison.
Patrick Orren Stephenson, 22, will appear in Ballarat District Court on Thursday charged with the alleged murder of Ms Murphy.
Ms Murphy disappeared without a trace after leaving her home on Eureka Street in Ballarat East, Victoria, on the morning of February 4.
Sources have told Daily Mail Australia it is unlikely Stephenson will travel from Melbourne Assessment Prison in the heart of Melbourne’s CBD to Ballarat for the short administrative hearing.
Instead, he will be beamed into the courtroom via video link from prison, where he is reportedly being held in a high-security unit.
Stephenson’s arrest in connection with the alleged murder has provided some relief to the Ballarat community, but it has not yet provided answers to the question of where Ms Murphy’s body was dumped.
Lawyers in Victoria had largely shunned video calls until former Victorian Premier Dan Andrews was forced to do so by six COVID-19 lockdowns.
In early March, nearly five weeks after Ms Murphy’s disappearance, police charged Patrick Orren Stephenson (pictured) with her alleged murder
Although plans to roll back the rules after the lockdown has been lifted for a long time, the legal community has now embraced the concept.
Renowned criminal lawyer George Balot of Balot Reilly Criminal Lawyers told Daily Mail Australia that video links have traditionally only been used to reduce the costs of bringing prisoners to court.
“Before the Covid pandemic, there was a slight shift to audiovisual performances to save significant costs in transporting prisoners to court,” he said.
“In addition, the Bureau of Corrections frequently failed to transport inmates to court, resulting in frequent cost-paying orders for the inmates.”
According to Mr Balot, courts often prefer to appear in person, especially when the subject’s liberty is at stake.
“The technology is sometimes unreliable and logistical problems often arise when lawyers have to take instructions from their clients during a hearing and then everyone in the courtroom has to leave the room to receive those instructions,” he said.
‘In addition, the connection often times drops out and hearings inevitably have to be postponed, because correctional facilities too often cannot provide additional connection time.’
Samantha Murphy, 51, disappeared without a trace after leaving her home in Ballarat East, Victoria, for her morning run on February 4 (pictured)
Samantha Murphy is believed to have been murdered while jogging
Mrs. Murphy’s disappearance sparked a massive community effort to find her in the days that followed.
The 51-year-old had set off at 7am for her morning run through the nearby Woowookrung Regional Park, a 14km route she had run countless times before.
In early March, nearly five weeks after Ms. Murphy’s disappearance, police charged Stephenson with her alleged murder, despite her body never being found.
On Sunday, family, friends and the community of Ballarat commemorated the six-month anniversary of Murphy’s disappearance.
Many hope this week’s hearing will provide answers as to why Stephenson might have killed her.
In reality, the hearing is likely to produce more questions than answers, with things like witness lists and the documentation or evidence Stephenson’s defense team still needs discussed, among other things.
In March, the court heard that detectives had requested a longer period than usual to compile the evidence against Stephenson, saying there was a “significant” amount of material.
Stephenson was due in court for that hearing and a follow-up hearing a day later.
Mrs Murphy’s husband Mick (left) and her daughter Jess (right) took to the media for information in the days after she disappeared
The case is one of Victoria Police’s highest priority criminal investigations, with the Missing Persons Unit working tirelessly to gather evidence ahead of the expected trial.
A breakthrough in the case came after police discovered a dam on a plot of land south of Buninyong, about 14km from her home, on May 29.
Officers found a mud-smeared mobile phone in a wallet at the water’s edge, probably found by a police sniffer dog.
A breakthrough in the case came after police searched a dam on a property south of Buninyong, about 14km from her home, and found Ms Murphy’s phone
Shortly after the cell phone was found, police said in a statement that they had found a number of “objects of interest” during the search for the missing mother.
The phone, along with other items found during the search, was subjected to forensic examination, sources confirmed. The device belonged to Mrs. Murphy.
Many hoped the phone would lead to Murphy’s body, but police are tight-lipped about the evidence found on the device.
Police launched a series of “targeted searches” in the wooded area and on surrounding properties in the hope of finding the missing mother’s body or finding crucial evidence to bolster the case.
If the preliminary hearing goes ahead as expected, the murder trial in the Victorian Supreme Court is unlikely to begin until mid to late next year.
The trial could be further delayed by new evidence from homicide detectives, who continue to investigate the case in the hope of finding Mrs Murphy’s body.
Police allege Stephenson ‘intentionally attacked’ Ms Murphy in Mount Clear, approximately 7km after she had been out for a run.
Stephenson, who has no connection to the Murphy family, was charged on March 7 with the murder of the mother of three.
He is the son of former AFL player Orren Stephenson, who played 15 games for Geelong and Richmond between 2012 and 2014.
It is believed that Stephenson reserved the right to silence.
