The family of a young mother stabbed to death in a dispute over more than $50 have lashed out after her killer was released from jail to receive IVF treatment so she can have a baby behind bars.
Alicia Schiller, then 26, murdered mother-of-three Tyrelle Evertson-Mostert, 31, in a drug-fueled rage in Geelong, Victoria, on November 9, 2014.
But Corrections Victoria has now given the green light for Schiller to be released 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 its first five years before being released to the killer’s parents.
The move has upset the grandparents of Evertson-Mostert’s children, who called her release “bizarre.”
‘I’m just angry, you know, really angry.’ Yvonne Gentle, from Pearcedale, south of Melbourne, told Nine’s Today programme.
This woman has committed a calculated murder in cold blood. She stalked her and this is what she did. He has committed a diabolical crime.
‘Can he get another chance when Tyrelle doesn’t get a second chance? It’s just wrong. People in positions of power can make such stupid, uncaring and ridiculous decisions.
Alicia Schiller is allowed to have IVF to have a baby behind bars
‘He has taken 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? He’s enjoying a nice break from the normal prison routine.
“They’re going to take care of her and pamper her, you know, and it goes on and on and on.”
‘The prison system or our state government says that even a person in prison has rights. Well, not for a crime like that.
‘If you have committed a crime like that, you have rights. His rights should be taken away.
“Just because someone has a legal right doesn’t mean it’s the right thing to do.”
At his 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 “gut” anyone who took money from her, the court was told, but Evertson-Mostert was said to have borrowed $50 from her housemate’s room.
“I don’t care if she accepted it or not, I will gut her,” Schiller said before the attack, the court heard.
His victim’s four-year-old son was in the house when his mother was murdered and still lives with the horror he witnessed.
“It’s something that will never leave him,” Mrs Gentle added. “Seeing something so brutal right in front of your eyes.
And it’s your own mother. It’s just amazing, I don’t know what anyone could be thinking. I don’t know how someone can be so insensitive as to do something like that.
The court heard that Ms Evertson-Mostert had taken the money from her housemate’s room to buy medicines which she intended to sell and that she planned to replace the money.
Her eldest son, Tobias Evertsen-Mostert, who was 12 when his mother was murdered, has now called his mother’s killer “an animal” and told the Herald of the sun He was heartbroken over the loss of his mother.
The court heard Ms Evertson-Mostert (pictured) had taken money from her housemate’s room to buy drugs she intended to sell.
“I was an orphan, when this bitch did this, my father died a year before, so all my milestones when I was a kid, I didn’t have anyone to celebrate them, I didn’t have parents,” he said.
—You left three children without a mother, you animal. You stabbed your friend. I am firmly against this (IVF treatment).’
In On Wednesday, the Victorian government insisted taxpayers would not be forced to pay any of the costs of staffing, security or transport between the prison and the external IVF clinic.
But he declined to say whether the treatment was successful, how much it would cost to care for the child in the specialized parenting room or whether taxpayers would bear the costs.
Prisons Minister Enver Erdogan attempted to deflect responsibility, saying it was a court decision allowing Schiller to receive treatment.
The minister said there were many questions that needed to be raised about the “appropriateness and necessity of this treatment”.
“In terms of access to treatment, it’s a Supreme Court decision,” he said.
“But I think the ethical questions about these types of treatments, especially when someone is serving such a long sentence, I think medical professionals need to consider.”
The Victorian Supreme Court jury that convicted Schiller had I heard that a witness to the crime had gone to the house to pick up methamphetamine, known as ice, from the victim.
Schiller and his supporters cried when the verdict was handed down. The young woman had pleaded not guilty to the murder.
She was watching the young mother weigh the drugs through her bedroom door when she saw Schiller jump on the bed, grab her by the hair and hit her repeatedly.
The punching action the witness saw was actually the mother being fatally stabbed by her house guest.
Evertsen-Mostert’s partner, Jason Gentle, cleared the room after the attack and said his dying partner asked him to call for help before realizing she had been stabbed.
He told the court his partner told him: “You better call an ambulance… she got me three good ones.”
At that moment his four-year-old son was by his side.
Johanna Evertsen-Mostert, the victim’s mother, was “very happy with the outcome” and said “justice has been done” as she left the court after the verdict.
Schiller and his supporters cried when the verdict was handed down. He had pleaded not guilty to murder; His lawyer insisted that it was involuntary manslaughter since he had no intention of killing his victim.