Justin Stein pleads not guilty to murdering a girl
A man is facing charges in the New South Wales Supreme Court after pleading not guilty to the murder of his fiancee’s nine-year-old daughter, Charlise Mutten, and dumping her body in a barrel on the banks of the Colo River.
Justin Stein, 32, has been charged with murder in connection with domestic violence and improper interference with a corpse or human remains after the schoolgirl disappeared from his family’s remote Blue Mountain estate, Wildenstein, early last year.
Justin Stein is accused of murdering his partner’s daughter.Credit: Facebook
Outside Penrith Magistrates’ Court on Friday, Stein’s attorney Peter Katsoolis said his client had pleaded not guilty to both counts.
When asked by Judge Fiona Toose to confirm his requests, Stein, who appeared via video link, replied, “Yes, that’s right.”
The judge told Stein that he would be tried for murder in the Sydney High Court and that the detriment charge would remain as a related issue at issue.
Outside the court, Katsoolis told reporters: “He has maintained his innocence in relation to these allegations from the outset and they are vigorously defended.”
Charlie Mutten.Credit:
Stein will be indicted in the Supreme Court on July 7.
Police allege Stein fatally shot the Tweed Heads Public School student on January 11 or 12, 2022 while she was visiting her mother, Kallista Mutten, over the summer holidays.
