A former X-Factor star accused of murdering a baby girl will no longer have to travel to a police station in country NSW after telling a court he is battling cancer and faces abuse from locals in town.
Emergency services rushed to a small brick home in Binnaway, in the state’s Central West, and found a nine-month-old girl with fatal injuries in July 2018.
The X Factor star Mitchell Callaway, left, is accused of murdering a baby girl in 2018; he was arrested last year, top right; police search a property in Binnaway. Credit: Sydney Morning Herald
The girl died in Coonabarabran Hospital, where staff called in NSW Police detectives.
It took police five years to lay a charge, but in June last year, Mitchell Callaway, 38, was formally accused of the girl’s murder.
Callaway was arrested near Bowraville, in the north of NSW, where he now lives with his parents.
The star of The X-Factor’s third season was released on bail in December 2023 on a $600,000 surety and ordered to report to the police station at nearby Macksville each day.
His solicitor, Stephen Dickens, appeared in the NSW Supreme Court seeking permission for Callaway to report to police over the phone for three days each week.
Dickens told the court Callaway had cancer, but it was in remission.