RICKY KILL CASE BEGINS
Accused to ask for bail
THE man accused of stabbing and killing Geelong teenager Ricky Balcombe in the Little Malop St mall more than 20 years ago wants to be released from custody, a court was told yesterday.
Karl Michael Hague, 44, appeared before the Victorian Supreme Court via video link charged with the 1995 murder of 16-year-old Balcombe.
Mr Hague has been in custody since he was charged in mid-August, and his barrister Theo Alexander said his client may apply for bail before his trial, which is due to begin in Geelong on January 30.
One of the people giving evidence during the trial will also pre-record his evidence due to ill health.
“The prognosis (for the ill witness) is not good,” crown prosecutor Andrew Tinney SC told the court.
Mr Hague was due to stand trial over Balcombe’s murder in 1998 before the crown abandoned its case against the then 23-year-old.
At the time, chief crown prosecutor Paul Coghlan QC said there was no prospect of obtaining a conviction against Mr Hague.
A nolle prosequi, or notice of abandonment, was submitted to Supreme Court justice George Hampel on February 6, 1998.
It allowed the Crown the right to reopen the proceedings at a later date.
Ricky Thomas Balcombe was repeatedly stabbed in the back and chest outside a supermarket at Geelong’s Market Square mall on May 5, 1995.
Mr Hague’s case is due back in court on September 25.