Massive meth binge of Charlie Mutten's 'ice addict' mother revealed in court - ... trends now
The Charlise Mutten murder trial has heard how the schoolgirl's mother had a meth addiction and was found screaming, incoherent and shoeless in a road while on ice.
Justin Stein, 33, the former fiancé of Charlise's mother Kallista Mutten, 40, is on trial at NSW Supreme Court in Parramatta accused of shooting her nine-year-old daughter.
He denies murdering Charlise but admits to disposing of the child's body.
On Wednesday, the court heard Charlise's mother was admitted to Katoomba Hospital in March 2021 in 'a drug-induced state'.
Her case notes revealed bystanders had found her 'sitting in the middle of a dead end road, rocking, repeating sentences, shaking, shivering, with no shoes'.
Ms Mutten could be heard screaming 'I wasn't there for my children. My children come first. Did I hurt anyone? I want to be there for my children', the court was told.
She had been released from Sydney's Royal Prince Alfred Hospital four days earlier and medical records said she had been taking 17 points of methamphetamine daily.
Kallista Mutten (above) after her daughter Charlise was reported missing, but before the nine-year-old's body was found in a barrel the following week
Detective Sergeant Bradley Gardiner, the officer leading the investigation, agreed in court that was 'very high', with one point equal to .1 milligram of the drug.
Ms Mutten had also previously pleaded guilty over a fatal car crash where she had been driving with methamphetamine in her blood, Det Sgt Gardiner told the court.
The court heard Ms Mutten had been using 17 points of ice daily for 24 out of the previous 28 days before her episode.
She had been taking ice since the age of 17, the jury was told, but had withdrawn from drugs while in jail between 2016 and 2019.
However she relapsed on her release and began injecting in October 2020.
She admitted to self harm and suicidal ideation while at Katoomba Hospital, and at RPA, she admitted she had 'hypersensitivity to interpersonal conflict' which caused her to 'cut myself'.
'I cut myself to try and stop them leaving the relationship and it tends to work,' she told RPA staff.
'That’s not right. It’s a form of manipulation ... that paranoia can last for days.'
Hospital records revealed Ms Mutten claimed Stein suffered from schizophrenia, but had a support network comprising of his mother, his parole officer and a drug and alcohol counsellor.
She said that her daughter was visiting in several months time and would be staying for two weeks. Ms Mutten added: ‘I need to have a support system set up by then.’
Det Sgt Gardiner agreed oin court that meant ‘even though the daughter was coming down, she (Kallista) was still indulging in her addiction'.
At the time of her death, Charlise was visiting her mother during the school holidays at Stein's family property at Mount Wilson in the NSW Blue Mountains.
Stein, who was engaged to Ms Mutten at the time, is accused of killing the girl between 7.16pm on January 11 and 10.06am on January 12, 2022.
He was arrested on January 18 after Charlise's body was found in a barrel on the Colo River, 58km from Mount Wilson.
On Monday, a phone call was played to the jury in which Stein claimed to his mother that Charlise had yelled 'Mummy, no' before she was shot by her mother who was on a three-day ice bender.
The court was played several phone calls Justin Stein allegedly made to his mother in the days and weeks after his arrest, where he says he witnessed the moment the nine-year-old was shot.
In the call, Stein's mother, Annemie Stein, begged her son not to say the fatal shooting occurred on the family's luxury Mount Wilson property.
In reply, Stein agreed and said instead it was 'on crown land, behind the shed, on the fire break'.
'She (Charlise) ran down, screamed my name, then you heard 'Mummy, no' and then the second gunshot,' the court heard him allegedly say in the recorded phone call made from behind bars.
