Family tension before death
JAYDEN MOOREA COMMITTAL HEARING: DAY 9
BREEANA Robinson told her cousin that she had been arguing with her boyfriend Jayden Moorea in the lead-up to her death, a court has been told.
Moorea, previously known as Daniel Shearin, is accused of throwing Ms Robinson from his 11th-floor balcony in the H2O building in Southport on January 29, 2013.
Moorea is facing a committal hearing in the Southport Magistrates Court for one count each of murder and damaging evidence.
Bianca Robinson told the court on Thursday that she drove Breeana home from cheerleading training because Moorea had refused.
The Gold Coast Titans cheerleader was unable to drive as she was legally blind.
“On the way home Breeana and I had been chatting and she said over recent weeks they had been arguing as he was not used to having someone around and someone who relied on her that much,” Bianca said.
She told the court Moorea would drop her off to training but told her to get someone else to drive her home.
“Driving her home was an inconvenience so she was told to ask me,” she said.
Bianca, also a Titans cheerleader, said the night Breeana died she drove her home.
She said the pair chatted about a number of things including being estranged from family members.
The court was told Breeana and her mother Elaine Robinson had a strained relationship in the months leading up to her death.
Bianca told the court she had offered to let Breeana move in with her in October 2012 after her mother issued the ultimatum.
“My aunt Elaine just wanted Breeana to come home but to do so she couldn’t be with Dan,” she said.
Bianca told the court it was her understanding that Bianca and her mother had stopped talking.
Breeana moved in with Moorea in December 2012.
Earlier in court, Breeana’s mother said her daughter was unrecognisable in the months leading up to her death.
Elaine also spoke about how her daughter had been bullied throughout high school and primary school.
She gave evidence on Thursday morning with a screen obscuring Moorea from her view.
Elaine told the court she and Breeana had an argument in September or October 2012 which led to a strained relationship.
She said the argument started when Breeana wanted to go on a cruise with Moorea.
Her mother said she could not go.
Defence barrister Angus Edwards, instructed by Hannay Lawyers, asked Elaine: “Her behaviour was not consistent with your daughter you knew and understood?” Elaine replied: “Yep.” The cheerleader moved out of her mother’s home not long after the argument to go live with her cousin.
Elaine said she never gave Breeana an ultimatum between herself and Moorea.
She spoke about how she had only seen her daughter one or two times in the months before her death and described a time when she saw Breeana Robinson at work. “When I saw her at work I told her I loved her and she told me that she loved me,” she said. “When I left her I got a text from Dan saying don’t contact them.”
Elaine agreed her relationship with her daughter had been strained in the months leading up to her death.
She told the court that as a child Breeana had been bullied at school.
Gold Coast police officer Senior Constable Clifford Coetzee said he spoke to Moorea the night of Breeana’s death and took notes in his notebook. The court was told Sen Const Coetzee had been asked to give evidence in the committal hearing to help decipher his handwriting.
Sen Const Coetzee said the notes showed that Moorea had told him that he was in the master bedroom while Ms Robinson was in the spare.
“He said something like five seconds later he came out of main bedroom and saw her leaping out of the window,” he said.
Sen Const Coetzee said without the notes he would “absolutely” have difficulty recalling the conversation.
Last week Gold Coast police Senior Constable George Liasides told the committal hearing he had not taken notes during an “odd and concerning” conversation he had with Moorea the night of Ms Robinson’s death.
He did not record the conversation anywhere until five years after her death.