The man accused of murdering Chinese student Mengmei "Michelle" Leng, her uncle, is shocked and upset and will be defending his charges, his lawyer says.
How could he plead not guilty and even think he could get bail? I guess he is going to claim that she did not return home on the Thursday and her boyfriend or new date did it or that he was not there and the male friend was there and did it. But surely they must have found his DNA on her body and they made the crime scene (her bedroom or) the house. So what about his phone that dinged at a tower nearby? Will someone give him a false alibi to say that he was staying with them over the weekend in that area?
I am now thinking that maybe Barrett told his wife when she was going away that he would be staying near Snapper Point for the weekend. Maybe he pretended to (or did) leave even before she did so she has believed his story. So he has told everyone that she was there by herself and that is what they expected. In the meantime, a story is implanted that Michelle was going to meet a guy she had met online so the wife reported her as a missing person on the Monday when the wife got home and found she was not there. Maybe Barrett was not there either and his wife and he communicated on the phone. So when the body was found on the Sunday and she was reported missing on the Monday, police the linked the two. It sounded as if his wife has believed his story and probably still does or at least wants to.
However, the family's spokesman said the family was concerned Barrett would be released from custody and were trying to stop that.Mr Chen also condemned as "not true" the rampant speculation that Ms Leng had met a boyfriend online before her death, and asked that media stop spreading "fake information".
"[There have] been lots of stories, some of them not true and the family are very saddened by this."
http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/an-angel-...er-hearing-20160504-golqvd.html#ixzz47foLFn7s
So the police took computers away and other evidence on the Thursday and arrested him on the Friday afternoon. I wonder how well he cleaned up and how much evidence they have?
Speaking outside court, Mr Whitby (Barrett's solicitor) said Barrett was not finding conditions at the Sydney police centre "particularly attractive". "It's a terrible place to be incarcerated and I can only hope he'll be moved in the very near future and I'll be making a bail application in the not distant future," he said. "Obviously he's very upset, shocked. "The bail laws are that you can only go once into each court, that is in the local court and the Supreme Court, unless there's a major change in circumstances. "It is very foolish to make a bail application until you're in a proper position to do it. "In other words, until you have surety lined up and things of that nature. Premature bail applications, in my opinion, are very foolish."
Ms Leng's mother, who will speak to the media tomorrow, had travelled from China with some relatives.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-05-...to-plead-not-guilty/7382582?WT.mc_id=newsmail