Woman, 55, charged with "accessory after the fact to murder"

Stock image.

July 20, 2022

A woman has been charged with accessory after the fact to murder following investigations into the shooting death of a man in the state’s Central West last year.

On Monday April 27, 2020, a member of the public took a man with a gunshot wound to his abdomen to Wellington Base Hospital. Despite the efforts of hospital staff, the man was unable to be revived.

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He was formally identified as 48-year-old Wellington resident Frank Smith.

Initial inquiries were conducted by officers from Orana Mid-Western Police District, before detectives from the State Crime Command’s Homicide Squad took carriage of the investigation under Strike Force Libani.

In October 2021 a 31-year-old man was arrested and charged with murder; he remains before the courts.

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Following further extensive inquiries, strike force detectives attended a correctional centre near Kempsey yesterday (Tuesday March 19, 2022), and arrested a 55-year-old woman.

She was charged with accessory after the fact to murder.

She was refused bail to appear at Kempsey Local Court later today.