A former X Factor Australia star accused of killing a nine-month-old baby girl has had the murder charge dropped.
In June last year Mitchell David Callaway, 39, was arrested in Bowraville, New South Wales following an investigation into the circumstances of the death of the baby in the state’s Central West in 2018.
Emergency services had been called to the home six years ago after she was found unresponsive. She was rushed to hospital, but died soon after.
A coronial inquest, held between December 2022 and April 2023, showed evidence linking Callaway to the baby’s death.
A post-mortem concluded the baby girl sustained 13 injuries to her head including an 8cm fracture above the ear, bruises on the back of her head and a significant injury inside her upper lip.
Police had alleged he’d fatally assaulted the girl while babysitting her in July 2018, with the injuries then causing her to suffer cardiac arrest.
They then set up Strike Force King to investigate her death before going on to charge Callaway with murder.
He spent six months in custody before the NSW Supreme Court granted him bail in December 2023.
However, his lawyer Bill Dickens had argued there was no evidence linking the injuries to the cardiac arrest and claimed her skull might have been fractured up to a week before she died.
During Callaway’s bail application late last year, Justice Stephen Campbell acknowledged that while it was a ‘distressing case’ the case against Callaway was circumstantial.
He stated that while Callaway was a ‘natural suspect’ for police, there was significant ‘medical disputation’, as reported by the ABC.
At the time Justice Campbell accepted Callaway had problems with ‘aggression and anger management’, particularly while intoxicated, and ordered the former reality TV star to not drink and stay away from any licensed premises.
He was also ordered to stay at his parent’s house, report to police daily, adhere to a curfew and not contact any prosecution witnesses, including the baby’s mother.
The publication also reported Callaway had ‘fist-pumped the air’ when being granted bail.
He did not appear before Dubbo Local Court on Thursday when the Office of the Director of Public Prosecution dropped the single charge against him.
The baby’s exact cause of death and how she obtained the injuries is still not clear.
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Earlier this year the court was told Callaway had been diagnosed with stage-three cancer in 2018 but has since gone into remission.
The country singer competed in the third season of the reality singing series in 2011, auditioning with Keith Urban’s song Tonight I Wanna Cry.
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He was mentored by singer Natalie Bassingthwaighte and placed seventh in the competition after being eliminated in a showdown with late Home and Away star Johnny Ruffo.
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