The accused murderer of Whorouly woman Karen Chetcuti called his lawyer with a fake story of being abducted by two Lebanese men in the days after her death.
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Wangaratta solicitor Geoff Clancy was forced by the Magistrates’ Court on Thursday to reveal details of a phone call from Michael Cardamone on the afternoon of January 16 this year.
“He informed me that he’d been abducted by two Lebanese men and he was in the boot of a car,” Mr Clancy said.
Cardamone was a person of interest in relation to the disappearance of his neighbour, Ms Chetcuti, at the time, but fled from Whorouly to Melbourne while police were searching for her body.
Barrister for the prosecution, Sarah Thomas, said the fake abduction was one of “a series of false statements to cover his tracks”.
“Here is a piece of the trail of deceit,” she said.
Police arrested Cardamone the next day for traffic offences, before charging him with murder.
Mr Clancy told the court he spoke to Cardamone’s sister and sought advice from his father, long-time solicitor Kerry Clancy, before calling Wangaratta Senior Sergeant Garry Barton with the information.
“Geoff started the conversation with ‘here is one from left field, I just received a call from Michael Cardamone’,” Senior Sergeant Barton said in his statement.
The solicitor initially applied to the court to set aside an order forcing him to answer questions because it put him in a position to help convict his own client.
Defence barrister Peter Chadwick said there was a duty to call police about the abduction claim, “thereby raising the real issue of the personal safety of Mr Clancy’s client, Mr Cardamone”.
“Mr Clancy was completely just in ringing police and informing them, but by doing that he is then seized upon by police and, against his will, forced to become a witness for the prosecution,” Mr Chadwick said.
“Is that in the interest of justice?”
Ms Thomas said Cardamone was not charged with any offences at the time of the phone call, so Mr Clancy could not claim a legal privilege to keep the conversation confidential.
“This is normal business for the homicide squad and there’s no reason why investigators should not pursue the best evidence,” she said.
“He shouldn’t be treated differently than any other citizen.”
Magistrate Gerard Lethbridge said public interest in the “serious charge, that being murder” meant Mr Clancy needed to give evidence.
