Leisl Smith: Grim end to trial as James Scott Church kills himself one day before trial verdict

An accused murderer has been found dead – believed to have taken his own life – one day before a judge was to hand down her verdict on whether he killed his girlfriend 10 years ago.

Leisl Smith vanished from Tuggerah Railway Station on the NSW Central Coast on August 19, 2012, leaving behind her car. She was seen in CCTV footage clambering into a white ute. 

Her ex-lover, James Scott Church, now 53, had been charged with her murder and was standing trial in front of Justice Elizabeth Fullerton. However, his body was found at home in Inverell, in the state’s north, on Thursday – 24 hours before the judge was to deliver her verdict.

On Friday, Justice Fullerton said that she was legally unable to deliver a verdict of guilty or not guilty because Church, 53, had died on Thursday.

In a grim conclusion to the cold case, Ms Smith’s ex-lover killed himself the day before a judge was to hand down a verdict on whether he murdered her

‘I regret that the trial proceedings have concluded without verdict. I hope the members of the public and more importantly Ms Smith’s family members and her many friends understand the position as I’m obliged to abide by it as a matter of law,’ the judge said.

The death was not suspicious with Church believed to have taken his own life, Justice Fullerton said.

With the death of the accused, the trial ended, a conclusion that the judge acknowledged would be difficult to those who knew Ms Smith.

‘The law simply does not allow me to return a verdict, to publicly announce it, or to publish the very lengthy reasons which were ready to be published this morning,’ she said.

James Scott Church, above, had pleaded not guilty to the killing. Justice Fullerton said she could not, under the law, deliver a verdict in the wake of his death 

Police scour wet bushland during the search for Leisl Smith’s body in 2013

Church, a NSW horse farrier, pleaded not guilty to the killing in January this year and had been released on bail. 

The case was brought in a 68-day judge-alone trial which concluded on May 24.

The Crown had alleged Church killed Ms Smith after she told people she was pregnant to him and because he wanted to save his new relationship with Belinda Lees. 

But the defence contended other scenarios could not be ruled out including that Ms Smith’s violent ex-boyfriend, the late Craig Elkin, could have been involved or that she disappeared on purpose. 

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