Australia - A Sunshine Coast jury will decide the fate today of two women and a son who placed a fake bug in the home of a Nambour woman with mental health issues.
In each of their recorded police interviews, which were shown during a Maroochydore District Court trial over the past two days, they said they thought planting the bug would “help” the woman, who believed someone was monitoring her.
They took $100 from the woman’s daughter for removing the bug, which was a circuit board and wiring they obtained from a Mooloolaba surveillance store.
Kathleen Joan Kitchner, 54, and Corinne Martell, 47, from Private Eyes007, and Ms Martell’s son, Shane Robert Martell, 26, have pleaded not guilty to attempted fraud.
Their defence barrister has told the jury that “the reason the bug was placed there” should be the issue in their deliberations.
He said while the Crown argued the women planted the fake listening device with a view to getting further business through installation of a surveillance system and possibly security patrols, they had other motives.
The women were hired after Cheryl Metcalf called them to sweep her mother’s home for cameras and bugs in June, 2008. (more)
