Overview
- Magistrate Stephen Ballek ruled there is sufficient evidence for a jury to find a duty of care was owed and breached in a negligent manslaughter case.
- Charging documents and court submissions state Torney also faces related assault offences arising from the events preceding Emma Bates’s death.
- Forensic evidence presented to the court attributes death to diabetic ketoacidosis, with a head injury noted on the death certificate.
- Prosecutors allege Torney assaulted Bates, left her unable to seek help, and went to the pokies, a bank, and to fix his bike instead of calling an ambulance.
- The defence contests the existence of a de facto relationship and the claim that failure to obtain medical care caused death, as the case returns to court on November 27 ahead of a Supreme Court trial.