Fears for life relived in court

A FORMER Hobart taxi driver feared for his life when three people started threatening him in the early hours of a winter morning last year, the Supreme Court in Hobart has heard.

Carley Anne Watkins, 33, Leigh Reginald Dobson, 33, and Samuel James Franklin, 31, have each pleaded not guilty to the aggravated assault of Muhammad Osama Siddiqui, 26, at Ms Watkins’s Blackmans Bay home in July last year.

The three have also pleaded not guilty to two counts of computer-related fraud and Mr Franklin has pleaded not guilty to stealing a mobile phone from Mr Siddiqui.

Mr Siddiqui, who lived in Kingston and was a taxi driver at the time of the alleged crimes, yesterday told the jury he went to Ms Watkins’s home on July 6 last year, just after midnight.

He said the two had arranged to meet so that Ms Watkins, whom Mr Siddiqui knew from his taxi driving job, could pay him $110 she owed him and return a car he had loaned her about a month before.

Mr Siddiqui said Mr Dobson, whom he had met before, and Mr Franklin were also at Ms Watkins’s home. He said there was about an hour of pleasant conversation before the situation changed.

“I felt like I did a big mistake to enter in to the house and give a lift to these people,” Mr Siddiqui said.

“When I saw the knife I lost my mind … I feel like I wouldn’t go alive from there,”

The prosecution case is that Mr Dobson and Mr Franklin “aggressively questioned” Mr Siddiqui about his life and whether he was a police informant, and that Mr Franklin told Mr Siddiqui to tell the truth about who he worked for “otherwise you won’t go alive from here”.

The case also includes allegations Mr Dobson, while holding a knife, punched Mr Siddiqui to the face and told him to empty his pockets, that Ms Watkins said to Mr Siddiqui words to the effect of: “They’re going to kill you if you don’t tell them the truth … if you tell them and open up your [bank] account I promise we will let you go.”

Crown prosecutor Tony Jacobs said Mr Franklin transferred $7000 from Mr Siddiqui’s bank account into an account of his own and transferred a further $500 from Mr Siddiqui’s account into an account created for Ms Watkins, abetted by Mr Dobson and Ms Watkins. Mr Jacobs said there was no evidence the alleged crimes had been planned.

Lawyers for each of the accused told the jury their clients did not agree with the Crown’s description of what happened that night.

The trial, before Justice Gregory Geason, continues.