Murder Plot
In MRRC, Spaliviero allegedly met another inmate who offered him to get witnesses in Spaliviero's case killed. In relation to this, Spaliviero phoned Lindström from MRRC telling her to meet a "solicitor" and give him money. Lindström started acting upon instructions from Spaliviero. When Lindström finally met who she thought was a hitman, but who in reality was an undercover police officer, she was arrested. The policeman on the case stated that Lindström wanted to have two men to the "cemetery" which meant she wanted them dead. The price was agreed as AUD 100,000 for each contract.
Upon her arrest on 26 May Lindström was remanded in custody. Later an application for bail was made where Steven Spalivieros mother, Dolores Spaliviero, offered to put up AUD 2,000,000 surety to get Lindström out from custody. In addition, Lindström's friend and employer, Justin Hemmes provided an undertaking that if Lindström was set free on bail, he would let her continue her work at the Hemmesphere nightclub until trial. The application for bail was denied due to flight risk and Lindström was remanded in custody.
On 18 September, having had a deal made with the prosecutors Lindström pled guilty to the charges. On 21 December, she pled guilty yet in another court in Sydney. Lindström appeared in a bullet-proof vest at her court hearings because of the alleged death threats against her.
Lindström was initially sentenced to four years in jail being eligible for early parole on 25 May 2009. Even though Lindström was given a hefty discount from her sentence because she had agreed to testify against Steven Spaliviero and two other men, the Crown appealed against the sentence as "manifestly inadequate". The criminal court of appeals heard the appeal on 4 July. 2008
On 23 July 2008, her maximum sentence was increased from three years and 10 months to four years and nine months, making her eligible for parole in May 2010.
On 11 August 2008, Lindström started testifying against Spaliviero in his court case, even reading a love letter to the court which she had written to him in February 2007, some months before her own arrest.
Despite Lindström's extensive testimonies, Spaliviero and two other defendants were found not guilty for the murder plot.
Lindström was released on parole from Long Bay Jail in New South Wales on 25 May 2010 and deported the next day from Australia.
Since her release from prison, Lindström has returned to her native home Sweden and is understood to have had ongoing threats against her life.
According to the Australian media, on 15 August 2010, Charlotte Lindström agreed to return to Australia to testify in the trial of Spaliviero's associate. Due to an unspecified severe illness, she has not been allowed to travel to Australia. The upcoming trial has been postponed.
Read more about this topic: 2007 Hitman Case
Famous quotes containing the words murder and/or plot:
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—Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835–1910)
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—John Ashbery (b. 1927)