MUM OF HAGUE’S EX-GIRLFRIEND TAKES STAND

Hague turned up an hour after alleged killing, says ex-girlfriend’s mum

ACCUSED killer Karl Hague didn’t get to his girlfriend’s house in Drumcondra until more than an hour after the 1995 Market Square murder, the girl’s mother has told court.

Sandra Williamson also told Melbourne Supreme Court she noticed a couple of uncharacteristic things about the man on that day; May 5, 1995.

She said he was wearing jeans and riding a bike, neither of which she had seen him do before, and also said he was without a familiar Adidas jacket she usually saw him in.

But Ms Williamson, a disability support worker, was accused of lying under oath to frame the 44-yearold defendant by defence lawyer Felicity Gerry, QC.

“You’ve lied because you didn’t like him, you didn’t like your daughter going out with him and you’ve been influenced by the publicity that you’ve seen,” Ms Gerry told the witness.

Ms Williamson denied lying. She said Mr Hague had been going out with her daughter, Belinda Witcombe, for about four or five weeks at that time, and got to her house between 4.30pm and 4.45pm on the day in question..

The prosecution claims her evidence yesterday underpins its argument that Mr Hague’s “ever-changing alibis” for the murder helps prove his guilt.

The jury was told at the outset of the trial the man, 21 at the time, had always denied being in the mall at 3.20pm when the murder happened, and has long claimed he was with the teenage Ms Witcombe or on his bike riding to her house. The jeans and jacket Ms Williamson described yesterday were similar to clothing other witnesses have told the jury they saw being worn by the male who stabbed Ricky Balcombe and/or by a person other witnesses saw running through the Little Malop St mall about the same time.

Some of that evidence was heard yesterday, when 12 witnesses took the stand.

Among them were three friends, all 19 at the time, who were allegedly walking through the mall from Yarra St about the time of the killing, when a male of similar age sprinted towards them and crashed past before turning left and bolting north.

The jury heard from Pamela Munn, the mother of Nick Munn, who has been described as the leader of Geelong street gang The MSC, of which Balcombe and witnesses, Paul Bellia, Stephen Cramer, Christopher Lawson and Travis Langley were members.

She was quizzed about the crimes her son and his friends committed in those days, and about her efforts informing police to help catch Balcombe’s killer.

She also spoke about the reaction of witness Paul Bellia on the day he claims he saw the killer at the Geelong Show months after the stabbing.

Ms Munn said she later found Mr Bellia, then 17, at her home “curled up in a ball, holding onto the doona”.

“He was terrified. He looked like he was in shock,” and he was barely able to speak, Ms Munn said. But she said he told her the man was Karl Hague.

The first paramedic on the scene on the day of the alleged killing also gave evidence.

The ambulance officer said he was called to Market Square at 3.26pm, and got there three minutes later but the boy had “no signs of life”, and efforts to revive him did not work.

The trial continues.