THE Walcha widow accused of killing her partner in an elaborate plan to inherit his farm will face an eight-week trial next year.
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Natasha Beth Darcy pleaded not guilty, on Friday morning in the NSW Supreme Court in Sydney, to murdering Mathew Dunbar near Walcha more than two years ago.
The court was told the murder trial is expected to run for up to two months and will be held in Sydney.
Darcy, who is being held in custody at Mary Wade Correctional Centre in Sydney, appeared in court via video link and pleaded not guilty to the lone charge.
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After the plea, Justice Elizabeth Fullerton was told the trial would span eight weeks from June 1, 2020, the Crown and defence both determining it should be heard in Sydney, not Tamworth.
Darcy made no application for bail on Friday and it was formally refused by Justice Fullerton.
She will remain in custody until her trial, which will be heard before Justice Julia Lonergan.
Darcy, 44, stands accused of murdering Mr Dunbar on August 2, 2017, on his property, Pandora. Detectives allege she killed him in order to inherit the farm.
Oxley police set up Strike Force Ballin in the wake of Mr Dunbar's death, to investigate the circumstances surrounding it. The death was labelled suspicious at the time by senior police.
The Leader revealed in 2017 that it was the police case Darcy had 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 many of those 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 court has previously been told the case against Darcy is voluminous.
She was arrested in Walcha in November 2017, three months after the 42-year-old's death.
Darcy has been behind bars since.