Walcha murder: Natasha Beth Darcy denied bail in Tamworth court, charged with murdering Mathew Dunbar near Walcha

Natasha Beth Darcy sobbed and told Tamworth Local Court she hadn’t seen her kids since she was refused release last year, charged with murdering Mathew Dunbar.

“I haven't seen my children in 12 months, either,” she told the court, wiping tears from her face.

Darcy lodged a bid for release to live with her parents in Wollongong, who would post $50,000 in surety and wear an electronic GPS ankle bracelet to allow her movements to be tracked. This was supported with a letter from her former husband, who was caring for her three children.

Darcy, appearing in court on Wednesday afternoon via video link from a Sydney prison, has been behind bars since her arrest in Walcha in November 2017 for the Walcha farmer’s alleged murder three months earlier.​

“There is no barrier for her to see them,” Magistrate Julie Soars told the court, with Darcy confirming she has had phone contact.

But her 12-month stint and a long list of conditions wasn’t enough to persuade Ms Soars to grant her bail.

Ms Soars said the cause for her release “is not made out” and “I can’t find it’s a weak circumstantial case” and “there is a volume of evidence of different types”.

“While they are strong bail conditions, they don’t invariably address the issues raised by the prosecution,” she told the court.

“So I refuse bail.”

The court heard the defence would argue there was explanations for Google searches, and that Mr Dunbar had suicided, but DPP solicitor Andrew Baker said the Crown’s case was Darcy had murdered her partner.

He said there was “no suicide note found” and the children were home at the time.

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“The Crown says being sedated with a concoction of numerous sedatives and similar chemicals … is inconsistent with suicide and consistent with the Crown case of murder,” he told the court.

“The phone evidence is significant.”

Barrister Tracey Randall said there had been a change in circumstances since her last bail bid in September, when she lodged an application to live with her former partner and children in Walcha and post $75,000 in surety. 

Ms Randall argued the tracking bracelet could be “fitted prior” to leaving custody and would be monitored by a private company which forwards tracking reports to the police informant.

She said 26 people in NSW were currently wearing the device and “19 per cent of people being monitored are on murder charges”.

She said the the location “takes her well away from Crown witnesses" and there was “no real threat of influence if she has the bracelet on”.

Mr Baker argued the ankle bracelet “addresses the risk of flight” but “that doesn’t”address any risk of further serious offences”.

He said the tracker wasn’t offered on the last occasion and “whether it’s significant, the Crown says not”, and argued a larger surety was offered on the last occasion and it was still rejected.

Mr Baker argued Darcy was at risk of interfering with witnesses in the case and committing further serious offences.

He said it was “alleged she committed this offence on parole” and did “commit previous fraud and pervert [course of justice] offences on parole”.

Ms Randall argued the Crown’s case relied on tendency evidence and internet searches.

She argued Darcy was not in a relationship and the offending on her record “is extremely limited unless she starts a new relationship, given what the Crown are putting” in relation to tendency, this was not an unacceptable risk, she submitted.

Ms Randall argued all of the Crown’s witnesses in the case live in the Tamworth and Armidale area and the bail proposal “is to put her in Wollongong”.

Ms Randall said the Crown case relied on internet searches and tendency evidence in relation to previous police facts centred on her former husband. She said the murder trial was effectively going to be “a trial within a trial”.

“In my submission without tendency, the Crown case is not a circumstantial case,” she said.

“It relies on a motive in relation to a will.

“It relies on a photograph of a helium bottle found on the accused’s phone"

“It relies on the accused buying veterinary tranquilizer."

She argued “there is a long time to be spent in custody” before any trial, which the court heard could be moved to Sydney.

Ms Randall argued the defence had an “explanation of the searches” found on Darcy’s phone, and argued syncing of multiple devices in the home was one of the explanations.

“There is evidence they used each other’s phone,” she told the court, but Ms Soars said one of the searches referenced “if helium shows up in an autopsy”.

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Ms Randall said some of the searches the Crown had highlighted about how to delete web browser history and Facebook, “on first reading, that’s a kinda of ‘gotcha moment’”, but told the court it was in relation to a friend Darcy was communicating with on Facebook, about cannabis she had for personal use.

“She is clearly talking to the person who supplied her with that cannabis,” she said.

Ms Randall submitted searches centred on how long a crime scene was in place for and “pleading not guilty to murder” had “perfectly valid reasons”.

“The accused and her children weren’t allowed back into that property,” she said, following the death, adding Darcy had no control what Google populated the searches with.

“They’re her searching things and a whole lot of things coming up on the screen and her clicking on things.

“As many of us often do ... she starts clicking on things.”

The court heard Darcy’s DNA was found on the helium bag, along with Mr Dunbar’s DNA, but “she’s the first, she’s the person that discovers him”.

“It’s as not as straightforward as it appears on the police fact sheet,” Ms Randall submitted.

Mr Baker submitted said it was “a strong circumstantial case” with “evidence of motive, that being financial gain”.

He said Darcy stood to inherit Mr Dunbar’s grazing property and there was “evidence she was aware of that”.

He told the court there was “numerous inquiries to vets” in the Armidale and Walcha area to source particular drugs and tranquilizers, and she even purported to be calling on behalf of Mr Dunbar, and “provided a false name and phone number” to another vet.

Mr Baker submitted the volumes of searches dated from February to after his death, and there was evidence of her using the phone while on CCTV.

He said “incriminating searches” and her browser history had been deleted, and and there was evidence she was not with Mr Dunbar when “her phone has been used to search those terms”.

Ms Randall submitted that, six weeks prior to the death, Mr Dunbar had been admitted to a health facility “for threatening self-harm with a firearm”.

“That is significant,” she said.

“His death was as a result of asphyxiation by helium.

“He purchases the helium [bottle].

“They’re matters that the Crown will have to overcome.”

Darcy has lodged a separate application for bail that is listed in the NSW Supreme Court early next year. She will return to court in Tamworth in March.