Police found Linda Stevens’ body, with multiple puncture wounds, in the boot of a car at Corrimal in Wollongong’s north in April 2013.

Colin Maxwell Farrow was later arrested and charged with the murder of Ms Stevens and appeared in the Supreme Court in Sydney on Friday.

The court heard an application would be made for Farrow to have a judge-only trial and he would plead not guilty on the basis of mental illness.

The trial is set down to start on February 2, 2015.

AAP