Evidence about the supposed final hours of teenage receptionist Sarah Spiers, as she was allegedly attacked by accused Claremont serial killer Bradley Edwards in Mosman Park, was too unreliable to prove him guilty, the WA Supreme Court hears.
Evidence about the supposed final hours of teenage receptionist Sarah Spiers, as she was allegedly attacked by accused Claremont serial killer Bradley Edwards in Mosman Park, was too unreliable to prove him guilty, the WA Supreme Court has heard. Key points: The marathon trial of Bradley Edwards is now entering its final days The marathon trial of Bradley Edwards is now entering its final days Defence lawyer Paul Yovich says witness evidence is 'unreliable' Defence lawyer Paul Yovich says witness evidence is 'unreliable' He says justice won't be served by convicting the wrong person Edwards, 51, is in the final days of his long-running trial for the wilful murders of Ms Spiers, 23-year-old childcare worker Jane Rimmer and 27-year-old lawyer Ciara Glennon in 1996 and 1997. Defence counsel Paul Yovich is summing up his case, and told the court that Edwards would barely have had enough time to have murdered her and cleaned himself up before starting work the next day at 8:00am and working a 13-hour shift. "It leaves open a window during which he might conceivably have done all the things a killer needed to do," Mr Yovich said. Sarah Spiers, Jane Rimmer and Ciara Glennon all disappeared from Claremont in the 1990s. ( ABC News: Liam Phillips ) "But when considering whether it was the accused who in fact killed Ms Spiers, the defence submits that the logic of the situation militates against it." Ms Spiers was last seen on Stirling Road in Claremont after telephoning for a taxi to take her to Mosman Park at 2:06am on Saturday January 27, 1996. Witness testimony 'detracts' from case: defence Several witnesses testified they heard a series of "blood-curdling" screams in the Mosman park area that night, which the prosecution says was Ms Spiers screaming in terror as Edwards attacked her But Mr Yovich SC told the court the "cumulative defects" in the evidence of Mosman Park witness Wayne Stewart, who testified about a car he saw after hearing female screams on the night Ms Spiers went missing, meant his testimony "actually detracts" from the state's case. Mr Stewart lived on St Leonard's Avenue in Mosman Park and said he went out onto his balcony after hearing a woman scream in the early hours of January 27, 1996, to see if he could see her. He saw a car that he thought was probably a light-coloured Toyota Corona station wagon parked on the wrong side of the road with its headlights on near a phone box on Monument Street — a car that the prosecution says was Edwards's Telstra-issued Toyota Camry station wagon that he had used to take Ms Spiers from Claremont. Edwards was allocated a Toyota Camry by his employer Telstra. The vehicle was later re-sold privately. ( Supplied: Supreme Court of WA ) But Mr Yovich said Mr Stewart was well acquainted with models of cars because he was a mechanic, and in any case there was nothing to link the screams with the car at the phone box. Rape was 'calculated' and different to killings, defence says He said Edwards's behaviour in raping a teenager at Karrakatta Cemetery in 1995, a crime to which he has confessed, was markedly different in the way the state says Ms Spiers was driven to Mosman Park and attacked, thereby discrediting its argument about propensity. Defence lawyer Paul Yovich said evidence of Sarah Spiers's final hours was 'unreliable'. ( ABC News: Charlotte Hamlyn. ) "The circumstances that caused Ms Spiers's attacker to take her to Monument Street do not fit the propensity of the accused," Mr Yovich said. In the Karrakatta rape, Edwards was "calculated, methodical and premeditated" in planning the attack, which took…