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 the lawyers

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

00:34 granted an interim suppression order. He was arrested on Wednesday morning but charged running

00:39 late on Thursday, pretty late, about an hour or two before he appeared in court. He's going to

00:45 reappear in court next on August 8th for a committal hearing. Yeah, well, he got sent off to

00:51 court and eventually resolved with the Supreme Court.