I STILL CAN’T SLEEP
MIA’S MATE HAUNTED BY HER LAST MOMENTS
A GOLD Coast man who escaped the North Queensland hostel horror which claimed the life of Surfers Paradise bar waitress Mia Ayliffe Chung still has nightmares and struggles to sleep almost a year on.
Englishman Chris Porter was on the top bunk above 20year-old Miss Chung the night she was stabbed and killed at Shelley’s Backpackers in Home Hill last August.
In his first interview since the fateful incident, which also claimed the life of fellow British backpacker Tom Jackson, 30, Mr Porter recalls: “There are things you keep thinking I should have done different or should have done better but I’ve started getting over that now.
“It happened, there is nothing I could have done more.
“There was nothing I could have done to have helped Mia from the time I got out of bed.”
The pair of Brits, who became good friends months before her death while living and working in the Surfers Paradise party precinct, were a week into an 88-day farm work stint to extend their visas.
He could not find where a fatally injured Miss Ayliffe Chung ended up in the hostel as he ran around knocking on doors warning other residents to lock themselves in.
Unable to find her, a franctic Mr Porter broke an ankle and shattered both heels in a leap from the hostel’s firstfloor balcony on to concrete.
The 22-year-old said despite “gruesome” scenes that give him regular nightmares he also felt lucky to be alive.
“It only affects me at nighttime. It’s hard to fall asleep – unless I have a drink and sort of pass out.”
He spent three weeks in a wheelchair after the incident and briefly returned to the UK for Miss Ayliffe Chung’s funeral before settling back in Surfers Paradise.
Aside from his witness statement to police, he has shared details of what he saw with few people outside of Miss Ayliffe Chung's sister Natasha, who visited the Gold Coast last year.
“No one needs to know any of that – it was gruesome what I saw when I woke up.”
He had thought of Miss Ayliffe Chung – a popular, well-travelled VIP waitress at Bedroom nightclub – daily in the 11 months since.
“She flicks through my mind every day – that night too.
“But some of it is good, I’ll go into a place here and think ‘Oh, remember that’.”
He has gone back to his job running pub crawls and bar promotions in Surfers Paradise.
French national Smail Ayad, charged with the murders of Miss Ayliffe Chung and Mr Jackson, had his case adjourned in Townsville Magistrates Court on Wednesday until November.
He is in a mental health facility in Brisbane and also charged with two counts of attempted murder, animal cruelty and 12 counts of assaulting police.
THERE ARE THINGS YOU KEEP THINKING I SHOULD HAVE DONE DIFFERENT BUT ... THERE IS NOTHING I COULD HAVE DONE MORE. CHRIS PORTER