Patrick Stephenson named as alleged murderer of Samantha Murphy

The Ballarat mother was missing for five weeks before police laid charges against 22-year-old Ballarat local Patrick Stephenson.

Transcript

00:00 We're here standing at the front of the bar at Law Courts where we can officially name

00:04 22-year-old Patrick Stevenson as the alleged murderer of Samantha Murphy.

00:10 It comes after a hearing today where lawyers acting for Mr Stevenson

00:14 dropped a potential application for a suppression order on publication of his name.

00:20 He appeared in court yesterday after his arrest where he made no application for bail and didn't

00:25 indicate whether or not he was going to plead guilty or not guilty. We did hear from lawyers

00:29 that they were thinking of applying for a suppression order. As a result the magistrate

00:34 grants an interim suppression order which can be granted without debating the merits of a

00:42 potential suppression order. He was arrested on Wednesday morning but charged running late

00:47 on Thursday, pretty late, about an hour or two before he appeared in court. He's going to reappear

00:53 next on August 8th for a committal hearing. He'll get sent off to eventually resolve in the Supreme Court.

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