THE woman accused of murdering her Walcha grazier de facto husband is expected to stand trial for murder, after the Crown rejected an offer from her defence team.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Dressed in prison greens and with her hair tied up in a bun, Darcy listened intently when she appeared via video link in Tamworth Local Court from the Mary Wade Correctional Centre in Sydney, on Wednesday morning.
The case was due to be committed for trial or sentence, but magistrate Julie Soars was told another adjournment was needed, after the Crown rejected an offer from the defence just a day before.
"It's a matter where there had been representations made to the DPP," DPP solicitor Kat McKay told the court.
"Those representations were rejected."
Ms McKay said Darcy's solicitor, Tracey Randall, "was only advised" on Tuesday.
"Now that we have a decision, the accused will go to trial on the substantive charge," Ms Randall told the court.
But Ms Randall, who appeared via video link, told the court she wanted the matter to progress, and had expected it to be resolved before the representations were rejected.
"I had anticipated the matter would be resolved [on Wednesday] ... I already have matters on 11 September," she told the court, when asked if a two-week adjournment would be suitable.
Ms Randall said the matter would head to trial and she would have a signed "waiver certificate" sent prior to the next committal mention.
"It's just been languishing in the court list for awhile now," she said.
Ms Soars granted a two-week adjournment for the defence to finalise its position.
"I'll mark this matter as 'bail not applied for - refused' today," she told Darcy.
Darcy, 43, stands accused of killing Mr Dunbar on August 2, 2017, on his property, Pandora. Detectives allege Darcy killed him in order to inherit the farm.
The Leader revealed in 2017 that it was the police case that Darcy lied to investigators, used aliases and false names to allegedly source drugs, and made then deleted web browser searches on how to commit murder.
Police will allege that many of the searches related to certain methods of causing death that are undetectable or hard to locate during a post-mortem, and were allegedly deleted from her phone but recovered by police.
The case against Darcy is voluminous, the court has been told on several occasions.
In July, then sitting Tamworth magistrate Roger Prowse criticised the delays in the murder case, citing adjournment after adjournment on the court papers.
"It'll be two years and three weeks old," he said at the time, "since the act that is alleged to have given rise to the charge" and "it's not a matter of congratulations" on the time taken.
Darcy has been behind bars since her arrest in Walcha in November 2017, accused of the murder three months earlier.
Breanna Chillingworth
Northern Daily Leader Senior Crime and Court Reporter
Northern Daily Leader Senior Crime and Court Reporter
