The family of a young mother who was stabbed to death for more than $50 has lashed out after her killer was reportedly released from prison for IVF treatment so she can have a baby behind bars.
Alicia Schiller, then aged 26, murdered mother-of-three Tyrelle Evertson-Mostert, 31, in a drug-fuelled rampage in Geelong, Victoria, on November 9, 2014.
But Corrections Victoria has now given the green light for Schiller’s release from a Victorian maximum security prison to undergo IVF treatment.
If she becomes pregnant, she will be allowed to raise the child behind bars for the first five years before it is handed over to the killer’s parents.
The move has shocked the grandparents of Ms Evertson-Mostert’s children, who branded her release as ‘bizarre’.
‘I’m just angry, you know, very angry,’ Yvonne Gentle, from Pearcedale, south of Melbourne, told Nine’s Today show.
“This woman committed a cold-blooded, calculated murder. She lay in wait for her, and this is what she did. She committed a diabolical crime.
“If Tyrelle doesn’t get a second chance, can she get another chance? It’s just wrong. The people in positions of power can make such stupid, indifferent and ridiculous decisions.
Alicia Schiller may have IVF to have a baby behind bars
“She took away other people’s rights. Isn’t that why you’re in jail? Are you in jail to pay for the crime? And what does she get? She gets a good break from the normal prison routine.
“She’s being taken care of, she’s being pampered, you know – and it just goes on and on.”
“The prison system or our state government says that even someone in prison has rights. Well, not for a crime like this.
‘If you have committed such a crime, you do have rights. Your rights must be taken away from you.
“Just because someone has a legal right doesn’t mean it’s the right thing to do.”
During her murder trial, the court heard that Schiller had displayed a collection of box cutters, steak knives and pocket knives before the fatal attack.
She said she would ‘strip’ anyone who took money from her, the court was told, but Ms Evertson-Mostert allegedly borrowed $50 from her flatmate’s room.
“I don’t care if she took it or not, I will strip her,” Schiller said before the attack, the court heard.
Her victim’s four-year-old son had been in the house when his mother was murdered and still lives with the horror he witnesses.
“It’s something that will never leave him,” Mrs. Gentle added. ‘To see something so cruel right in front of your eyes.
‘And it’s your own mother. It’s just incredible. I don’t know what anyone could think. I don’t understand how anyone could be so insensitive to do something like that.’
The court heard that Ms Evertson-Mostert had taken the money from her housemate’s room to buy drugs which she intended to sell – and planned to replace the money.
Her eldest son, Tobias Evertsen-Mostert, who was 12 when his mother was murdered, has now branded his mother’s killer ‘an animal’ and told police. Herald Sun he was heartbroken by the loss of his mother.
The court heard that Ms Evertson-Mostert (pictured) had taken the money from her housemate’s room to buy drugs which she intended to sell
“I was an orphan, when this bitch did this, my father died a year earlier, so all my milestones as a child I had no one to celebrate them, I had no parents,” he said.
‘You left three children motherless, you animal. You stabbed your friend. I am strongly against this (the IVF treatment).”
On On Wednesday, the Victorian government insisted taxpayers would not be forced to pay for staffing, security or transport costs between the prison and the off-site IVF clinic.
But it refused to say whether the treatment was successful, how much it would cost to care for the child in the specialist parent unit and whether taxpayers would cover the costs.
Corrections Minister Enver Erdogan tried to deflect responsibility by saying it was a court decision to allow Schiller to undergo treatment.
The minister said many questions needed to be asked about the “appropriateness and necessity of this treatment.”
“In terms of access to treatment, this is a Supreme Court decision,” he said.
“But I think medical professionals need to think about ethical questions about this type of treatment, especially when someone is serving such a long sentence.”
The Victoria Supreme Court jury that convicted Schiller did learned that a witness to the crime had gone to the home to retrieve methamphetamine, known as ice, from the victim.
Schiller and her supporters wept as the verdict was handed down. The young woman had pleaded not guilty to murder
He was watching the young mother weighing the medication through her bedroom door when he saw Schiller jump on the bed, grab her by the hair and punch her repeatedly.
The stabbing action the witness saw was in fact the mother being fatally stabbed by her house guest.
Ms Evertsen-Mostert’s partner, Jason Gentle, cleared the room after the attack and said his dying partner had asked him for help before he even realized she had been stabbed.
He told the court his partner said: ‘You better call an ambulance… she gave me three good ones.’
His four-year-old son was at his side at the time.
Johanna Evertsen-Mostert, the victim’s mother, was “very happy with the outcome” and said “justice has been served” as she left the court after the verdict.
Schiller and her supporters wept as the verdict was handed down. She had pleaded not guilty to murder; her counsel insisted it was manslaughter as she did not intend to kill her victim.