Dorothy Sloan, 82, of Violet Town is facing 342 charges.
They include eight charges of aggravated cruelty, 97 of killing wildlife by poison and 208 of possessing protected wildlife.
She also faces 25 charges of possessing wildlife taken from the wild, and it is these 25 charges that were under dispute in a hearing in Shepparton Magistrates’ Court.
Ms Sloan’s defence launched an application in the court to exclude some evidence under the Evidence Act on the basis it was obtained illegally.
Much of the evidence directly related to bird and animal carcases found in the freezer at Ms Sloan’s house, as well as a handwritten note that said “gone to bait”.
The issue is a search warrant for a search of Ms Sloan’s house did not include a date for the cessation of the warrant, however it did say it was valid for seven days.
The warrant was issued by a magistrate in Wangaratta Magistrates’ Court on August 23, 2019 — four days before the search.
The legal issue under discussion in the hearing directly related to 25 charges of possessing wildlife taken from the wild and would have meant they would have had to have been dropped.
Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning prosecutor Megan Tittensor told the court the case rose from a DELWP investigation into reports of wedge-tailed eagle carcases in the area.
A search of nearby properties, including land owned by Ms Sloan, found 230 bird carcases.
This included 151 wedge-tailed eagles, as well as 59 other birds of prey including raptors, falcons and whistling kites, and other birds.
Ms Tittensor said the dead birds were “primarily concentrated on or near Sloan land, particularly part of a property that was used for lambing”.
Other dead animals were also found, with testing on the animals and eight birds finding the presence of an insecticide.
The prosecution alleges some of the birds had been shot, butchered and injected with poison and left out as bait for birds of prey to eat.
Ms Tittensor said the injuries of the galahs and cockatoos found in the paddocks were consistent with injuries to birds and animals in the freezer inside Ms Sloan’s home.
Defence barrister Charles Morgan argued that a warrant issued by the courts to allow authorities to enter a person’s home was “not to be taken lightly or flippantly”.
Magistrate Marita Altman found that while the warrant was invalid because it did not include the date, the omission of the date was “inadvertent or careless”.
As such she ruled the evidence should be allowed to be included in any case against Ms Sloan as the “probative value” of what was found in the house was high.
Ms Sloan will next appear in court in February.
She has not entered a plea on any of the charges.
