The travelling companion of an Irishman charged with the murder of Mr Greg Bebensee told the Darwin Supreme Court in Australia yesterday that the defendant told him he had killed someone. Mr Lee McLaughlin told the court: "He told me he killed a bloke."
Mr Trevor John Stokes (27), of Naas, Co Kildare, has pleaded not guilty to the murder of Mr Bebensee on June 6th last year.
The jury heard that the evidence of pathologists was that the injuries suffered by Mr Bebensee were consistent with an attack by a single assailant and were inflicted by a hammer-axe camping tool.
Local witnesses told yesterday of seeing Mr Bebensee at a city hotel just hours before his body was found in Packard Place, Larrakeyah, off Mitchell Street.
Mr McLaughlin, who is from Co Antrim, told the court that he and Mr Stokes attended a Scottish university and obtained degrees in civil engineering. They shared an apartment in Singapore and became close friends. They decided to go to Australia and he had paid Mr Stokes's air fare. Mr Stokes was to pay him back when he got work.
Mr McLaughlin said he and Mr Stokes arrived in Darwin on May 4th last year and stayed there for three or four days. They bought a car and travelled to Katherine, then to Kununurra in Western Australia, where they got some work. There they bought a second tent and the hammer-axe camping tool.
On May 30th they left Kununurra and returned to Darwin, camping at the Shady Glen Caravan Park at Winnellie next to brothers Scott and Christopher Cathcart, from Queensland, whom they met while travelling.
Mr McLaughlin said he and Mr Stokes spent time with the Cathcarts at various pubs in Darwin. On Saturday, June 5th, they spent much of the day at the Shenannigans Irish pub in Mitchell Street.
Ms Kylie Henrick, a sales executive, told the court she had been at the Vic Hotel and went outside to Smith Street Mall about 2 a.m. She was sitting on a stone step and a man she later realised was Mr Greg Bebensee was also sitting there. He made a remark about a "fairly pissed" man being refused entry to the hotel.
Ms Henrick said she went inside again and when she left the hotel at about 2.40 a.m. Mr Bebensee was not outside.
The trial continues today.