A NSW man accused of murdering a nine-year-old girl and dumping her body in a barrel will stand trial for the alleged crime next year.
Justin Stein, 32, is accused of murdering his then fiancee’s daughter Charlise Mutten on his family’s multimillion-dollar Blue Mountains property days before she was reported missing on January 14 last year.
An indictment of the charge read before the NSW Supreme Court on Friday noted the alleged murder occurred “on or about January 12, 2022”.
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A five-day search of bushland ended with her body being found in a barrel that had been dumped near the Colo River northwest of Sydney.
Police later said an autopsy found she had died of a gunshot wound.
Charlise’s mother Kallista is not accused of any wrongdoing in relation to her death.
Stein appeared in the NSW Supreme Court on Friday by video link from prison and entered a plea of not guilty to one charge of murder.
A trial date was then set for May 6, 2024.
The jury trial, estimated to go for seven weeks, will take place in the Parramatta Court House.
During the trial, the jury is expected to make excursions to the Blue Mountains property and to the Colo River.
Stein is also facing several other charges, including two counts of possessing child abuse material in the District Court and one charge of break and enter in the Local Court.
He remains in custody.
– with AAP