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A woman has told the Claremont serial killings trial how she accepted a lift from a dark-haired stranger after leaving the same nightclub in Claremont Sarah Spiers visited on the night of her disappearance.
Key points:
- Rebecca Keamy gave evidence after a request from the defence
- She accepted a lift from a man after leaving a Claremont nightclub
- Her description of that man was in contrast from others who testified
Rebecca Keamy, then called Rebecca Martin, described a "frightening" experience after she left Club Bay View in 1995 — the year before 18-year-old Ms Spiers disappeared — when she was aged 20.
Ms Spiers was the first of the three Claremont victims to disappear and the only one whose body has not been found.
Bradley Robert Edwards, 51, is on trial in the WA Supreme Court charged with the wilful murder of her, Jane Rimmer, 23, and 27-year-old Ciara Glennon between 1996 and 1997.
All of the women vanished late at night from the Claremont entertainment precinct in Perth's western suburbs.
Ms Keamy said she had been walking home from the popular nightclub to her flat in nearby McNeil Street in Peppermint Grove some time between 2:00am and 3:30am.
She said it was common for people to walk home from Claremont late at night at that time because taxis were difficult to come by.
Ms Keamy, who the prosecution called to testify after a request from defence lawyer Paul Yovich SC, said she accepted a lift from a man driving a small Japanese-style white station wagon.
She said the man had collar-length, wavy dark brown hair and was of a slight build.
After getting into the car, she began to get anxious after he did not respond to her attempts at conversation and repeatedly tried to put his hand on her leg, which she pushed off.
"When the car turned into the top of McNeill Street I was very frightened," she said.
"I was looking for ways to get out of the car."
She eventually jumped out of the car and managed to hide behind a set of letterboxes at a unit complex until the man drove off.
Testimony differs to living witness group
Ms Keamy's description was at odds with some of the other witnesses who gave evidence earlier in the trial as part of the prosecution's so-called Telstra Living Witness group.
These were young people who were offered or accepted lifts from a man driving a white vehicle late at night after leaving Claremont nightspots in 1996 and 1997.
Most of them described a clean-shaven, dark-haired man with short back and sides style haircut and of tall build, although one of them, Julianne Johnstone, said the man who offered her a lift in January 1996 had "messy" brown collar-length wavy hair.
The Claremont trial is sitting late on Wednesday in order to hear evidence from international fibres expert Ray Palmer, who is expected to begin his testimony shortly.
