Renee Mitchell's accused murderer Graham Sloane committed for trial

“Give me five minutes with him,” Mr Sloane said during his police interview.

“You could look away and I’ll cut his head off.

“Without any hesitation at all.

“And I’ll show you how to do it without getting caught.”

Mr Sloane, now 68, of Lake Road, Windale, appeared in court via audio visual link from Cessnock Correctional Centre on Tuesday.

His solicitor, Mandy Hull, told the court her client had offered to plead guilty to manslaughter by reason of “substantial impairment”.

But that offer had been rejected by the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions, Ms Hull said.

Instead, Mr Sloane was committed for trial on the charge of murder to the Sydney Supreme Court. 

Mr Sloane is accused of murdering Ms Mitchell, an aged care worker, at Windale between 4.30pm and 5pm on November 11, 2014. 

He is alleged to have taken Ms Mitchell from her kitchen and brutally stabbed her before dumping her body less than a kilometre from the family home in Bangalay Reserve. 

Mr Sloane was arrested the following day driving through Cardiff, where he told police he was a comedian heading off on a 12-month tour. 

During his police interview, Mr Sloane told detectives he had been with Ms Mitchell during the afternoon she was killed, but that he had dropped her off at the Windale shops.

“When I got back three young people came up and said: ‘Did you kill mum?’,” Mr Sloane told police.

“They said: ‘Have you got mum upstairs?’ I said: ‘No’.” 

Mr Sloane denied killing Ms Mitchell, but did provide police with a number of hypothetical scenarios. 

“Now I don’t want to know how she died,” he said.

“But I’ll tell you two things that I would do if I was going to kill her. If, I was a sniper in the army. If it was by a gun I’d shoot her in the chest.

“If it’d been a knife the way I would have done it, which I was taught in the army, was to cut her throat from behind.” 

The matter was adjourned to Sydney Supreme Court in September to set a trial date.