SIXTEEN minutes.
That’s the brief window of time – from 11.36pm to 11.52pm on Thursday night – during which detectives allege Kristie Powell, 39, was murdered at her Bellambi home.
After a state-wide manhunt over the weekend, the man accused of her murder, Bhanu Alan William Kirkman, 29, who had an address listed in the Shoalhaven region, was arrested in a demountable building near the Maitland railway station about 4pm on Monday.
Mr Kirkman was represented by solicitor Stephen Letheby when he appeared briefly in Maitland Local Court on Tuesday charged with murder.
Dressed in a blue forensic jumpsuit, Mr Kirkman was brought into court surrounded by four corrective services officers, one who tightly led him by his handcuffs.
He sat in the court dock smiling, with his hands up and his fingers outstretched throughout the brief appearance. He also appeared to be softly muttering to himself.
Magistrate John Chicken asked Mr Kirkman if he was aware he had been charged with an offence of murder.
“That is correct, Your Honour,” Mr Kirkman replied.
Mr Kirkman is accused of murdering Ms Powell in a 16-minute window, between 11.36pm and 11.52pm on Thursday, according to court documents. Her body was found at home at 1.10am on Friday, police have said.
Ms Powell’s five-month-old son was found uninjured inside the home.
Mr Kirkman did not enter a plea or apply for bail and the matter was adjourned to Wollongong Local Court on October 17.
The court heard that a Wollongong Local Court magistrate had issued an arrest warrant for Mr Kirkman in January this year after he had failed to appear in court on a number of unrelated matters, including possession of a prohibited drug, resisting arrest, possession of a knife in a public place and fraud offences.
Mr Kirkman pleaded guilty the day after his arrest in December and was granted bail, but failed to appear for sentence and was convicted in his absence, the court heard.
Those matters were also adjourned to Wollongong Local Court on the same date.
Mr Kirkman was arrested in a demountable building near Maitland railway station about 4pm on Monday, three days after he is alleged to have murdered 39-year-old Ms Powell at her home in Lorking Street, Bellambi, a suburb of Wollongong.
Wollongong detectives and the State Crime Command’s Homicide Squad had formed Strike Force Renehan to investigate Ms Powell’s death after her body was found inside her home about 1.10am on Friday.
