The mother of the man accused of killing Charlise Mutten has denied making up evidence to help her son, insisting she heard a “cheeky voice” in the background of a call that may have belonged to the nine-year-old girl, at a time prosecutors allege the child was already dead.
Annemie Stein faced the NSW Supreme Court in Parramatta on Thursday at the trial of her son, Justin Stein, who has pleaded not guilty to Charlise’s murder.
Annemie Stein (left) during a break in her evidence outside court on Thursday.Credit: Kate Geraghty
Justin Stein claims the girl was shot by her mother, his former fiancee Kallista Mutten, but admits he disposed of her body which was found with two gunshot wounds in a barrel by the Colo River on January 18, 2022.
Prosecutors allege Stein killed Charlise between 7.16pm on January 11 and 10.06am on January 12, 2022, at his family’s property Wildenstein in the Blue Mountains, while Kallista Mutten was at his caravan in Lower Portland.
Annemie Stein told the jury she “definitely” recalled a call with her son on the night of January 12.
“He said that he’d picked up Kallista and Charlise from the caravan park and that they were back in Mount Wilson,” she said. “I was not happy about that at all.”
Justin Stein, Charlise Mutten and her mother, Kallista.
She claimed Stein and Mutten had “already split up” by then, which she said happened days earlier.
“He told me he was picking up Kallista and Charlise and was taking them to one of Kallista’s friends,” she said. “Kallista was obviously at my property with Charlise.”
Asked by Crown prosecutor Ken McKay, SC, whether Justin said anything further, she said: “He just said, ‘Mum, relax, it’s just for one night. Tomorrow I’m taking them to Kallista’s friends.’
“Then I heard in the background, ‘Narelle, it’s only one night.’ ”
She said it was a “little voice … a cheeky voice”.
Asked by McKay whether she was able to say “whose voice that was”, she said: “I’m not. To the best of my knowledge it was cheeky, the way it was said, so to me that was the little girl.”
She added: “She always called me Narelle.”
She accepted the prosecutor’s suggestion that the first time she made a statement to police about the topic was this week.
Accused’s mother denies ‘adding evidence’ to assist son
The court was played an excerpt of Annemie Stein’s interview with police on the night of January 14, the day Kallista Mutten reported Charlise missing.
In the interview, Annemie Stein spoke about the January 12 phone call with her son, during which she said he had told her, “I’ve got the two girls with me.”
Asked by police whether she heard anyone in the background of that call, she replied, “No.
“Just find this child,” she said. “She [Kallista] knows where this child is, I’m telling you.”
The prosecutor on Thursday suggested to Annemie Stein that she “did not hear a voice”, to which she replied: “No, I definitely heard a voice.
“The reason why I remember … is because I was with a girlfriend; we talked about it afterwards.”
Justin Stein’s mother Annemie Stein (left) arrives at the NSW Supreme Court at Parramatta on Thursday.Credit: Kate Geraghty
She told the court she had been questioned by multiple police on the day of her interview, hadn’t slept or eaten, and her “entire house was overtaken”.
The prosecutor suggested she would have told police about the voice “if that was the truth”.
She replied: “That is the truth. I did hear her. I can’t be sure whether it was Charlise or Kallista.”
She added: “I thought I had told them in that interview … I definitely heard a child in the background or Kallista in the background.”
The prosecutor said: “What I’m suggesting to you, that your answer about hearing a voice in the background, having not told police on the 14th of January … that this is something you have added to your evidence to assist your son after being aware of the police allegation against your son?”
“No,” Annemie Stein replied.
Charlise’s mother was ‘aggressive’, court told
The defence argues Stein saw Kallista Mutten shoot her daughter behind a chicken pen on the night of January 12, which Mutten has denied.
Annemie Stein, under questioning by her son’s barrister Timothy Kent, said she had concerns about Kallista Mutten’s behaviour, including seeing her “talk to the child really nicely, then she’d scream”.
“Her erraticness [sic], the ups and downs, the way she was with her child, the aggression she showed her child,” she said.
“It wasn’t a comfortable mother-daughter relationship as it should be.”
The trial continues before Justin Helen Wilson.
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