A web developer has been found guilty of murder after stabbing his own mother to death in front of paramedics while under the influence of a cocktail of drugs.
Callum Cameron claims he cannot remember the night of August 10, 2020, when then 27-year-old Carol Cameron, originally from Scotland, inflicted 62 stab wounds at their home in St James in south-east Perth.
Cameron pleaded guilty to manslaughter, saying the killing was not deliberate because he was under the influence of chemicals including DMT, cannabis, antipsychotics and antidepressants. However, Judge Joseph McGrath ruled that the more serious charge had been proven.
Passing sentence on Friday, after a trial attended by only a Western Australian Supreme Court judge, Justice McGrath said Cameron’s actions were “deliberate”.
“This was not a spontaneous act where someone grabbed a knife and stabbed the victim once,” he said, the ABC.
The court heard how Mrs Cameron, a 63-year-old nurse, called emergency services in the early hours of the morning after fearing her son had taken an overdose.
She told the operator he was “barely awake” but not violent.
Paramedics arrived to find Mrs Cameron helping him to drink water in his bed, he became agitated as they tried to take him to hospital.
Callum Cameron was high on a cocktail of drugs when his mother tried to take him to hospital with paramedics and he savagely stabbed her
Friends of the family said Mrs Cameron was a ‘good mother’ who had tried to ‘set her traumatised son on the right path’
One of the aid workers told the base that he had an “unpredictable feeling” but that they were “not directly threatened.”
However, when Mrs Cameron again asked him to go with the ambulance staff, he walked into the kitchen where he grabbed a knife and she followed him.
Ambulance worker John Bowring said he lost sight of the pair and then heard Mrs Cameron scream “he’s stabbing me”. She then crawled out of the kitchen on the floor and returned to his line of sight, from where the attack continued.
He immediately put out a “code black” request on his walkie-talkie, a request for urgent police assistance, and told the base, “Buddy, please, he’s stabbing the mother.”
Mrs Cameron, a cancer nurse, called emergency services to the home (pictured) in St James, Perth, to help her son
When officers arrived, they found Cameron on the couch with blood on his hands and Mrs. Cameron in another room. They were forced to restrain him with a taser when he became agitated again.
He was taken to hospital by ambulance and repeatedly asked the emergency services if his mother was okay.
Judge McGrath ruled that the attack was not premeditated and that Cameron’s drunkenness combined with his anger contributed to his decision to attack his mother. However, he was responsible and there was intent.
He will hear his sentence in November.