Callum Cameron woke his mother up on the night of August 10, 2020, to tell her he was overdosing on drugs and needed help.
Carol Cameron, 63, was a former nurse. She called triple-zero to ask for an ambulance at their St James home, saying her son was acting erratically.
Callum Cameron stabbed his mum 63 times in a drug-induced psychosis.Credit: Facebook
After they arrived, he stabbed her 62 times in an attack so violent and disturbing a jury was spared the details in a judge-only trial.
But on Friday a Supreme Court judge found the 31-year-old guilty of her murder despite his claims he could not remember it.
“This was not a spontaneous act of picking up a knife and stabbing the victim once,” Justice Joseph McGrath said in his judgement released on Friday.
“The accused went to the kitchen, retrieved a suitable weapon and then inflicted a prolonged, brutal attack.
“I accept that the killing was not premeditated. Rather, I find that the accused became angry and acted with purpose by inflicting the violent attack.
“The intensity of the attack is consistent with a person intoxicated with illicit substances. I accept that the accused’s level of intoxication combined with his anger were factors that [bore] strongly on his decision to attack.”
During his trial in March, the court heard how Cameron had taken a cocktail of mushrooms, antidepressants and potent plant-based psychedelic ayahuasca at the time of the attack.
In Carol’s triple-zero call, she told operators her son was not being violent but she was concerned about him.
Attending paramedics said Cameron was unresponsive and looked like “the lights were on but no one was home” before they left the St James house to request police support to get him to hospital.
Before police arrived, Cameron’s behaviour escalated, and he was heard telling his mum to “f--- off” and leave him alone, before grabbing the knife and beginning his attack.
The paramedic told the court he and his colleague chose not to re-enter to help as it was “far too dangerous”.
Instead they activated a “code black” and armed police entered minutes later, where they found Cameron sitting calmly on the sofa covered in blood – as they described it in the trial.
He asked if his mum was OK and if he was in trouble.
When police arrested him, he then began to struggle, and they had to use a taser and baton.
Cameron’s defence team had argued in court that despite the nature and number of the stab wounds, he never intended to kill his mum.
“In his words, she was a beautiful lady,” his lawyer said.
“She was ongoing support during difficult times.”
Cameron will be sentenced on November 4.
If you or someone you know needs help, please call the National Alcohol and Other Drug hotline on 1800 250 015 or call Lifeline on 13 11 14.
Read more
This Perth man had an $800 a week drug habit. He thought going to his GP would help