DANIEL JAMES MORCOMBE
A MAGISTRATE will allow 11 of 16 controversial witnesses to be called to the committal hearing of the man accused of murdering Sunshine Coast teenager Daniel Morcombe.
Brett Peter Cowan, 42, was charged last year with the abduction and murder of the 13-year-old schoolboy who vanished while waiting for a bus at Woombye in 2003.
During a hearing earlier this month, Chief Magistrate Judge Brendan Butler heard argument from Cowan's defence lawyer as to why the witnesses should be called.
Some of those were hypnotised by police during the investigation into Daniel's disappearance to see what they could remember about the day he disappeared.
Of the 16 witnesses Judge Butler was asked to consider, he ruled that 11 of those should be called for cross-examination.
Of those 11, Cowan's defence team will now be able to question them about issues such as the hypnosis they underwent, photoboards, and observations made by them near the abduction site on the day Daniel disappeared.
A further four contentious witnesses will be argued about later this month, although those discussions will be held in a closed court.
Outside court, defence lawyer Tim Meehan said the remaining four witnesses are at the crux of the case.
He also described the technique of hypnosis as a "bizarre" way of jogging a witness's memory.
"It's certainly something that Queensland Court of Appeal has treated very carefully in the past," he said.
Mr Meehan said Cowan is also looking forward to the committal hearing starting on November 26.
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