WHO KILLED PHIL CARLYLE?
COLD CASE TRIAL DAY ONE |
THE wife of a Gold Coast marketing manager allegedly executed by his business partner had a knife held to her throat by debt collectors prior to her husband’s death, a court has heard.
More than 23 years ago, Philip Carlyle was shot dead at point-blank range in a soundproof plant room at the offices of the Gold Coast IT start-up where he worked.
But his business partner Neil Andrew Pentland, 72, is not the person who fired four bullets into the 48-year-old father’s head in a “methodical execution”, says his defence barrister Saul Holt QC.
Pentland is on trial in the Brisbane Supreme Court over the killing of Mr Carlyle on April 13, 1997 at Robina.
He pleaded not guilty to murder during the first day of his judge-alone trial on Monday.
Mr Carlyle’s widow, Gion Tansley, yesterday gave evidence two men came to her home looking for money they said her husband owed them.
Mr Carlyle was overseas at the time, the court heard.
The court heard they held a knife to her throat during the ordeal, but she never reported the incident to police.
Ms Tansley also told the court Pentland almost fainted when Mr Carlyle’s body was found at the business premises in 1997.
Pentland and Mr Carlyle met on the Gold Coast through their children’s soccer team and later began operating IT start-up Atnet, the court yesterday heard.
Crown Prosecutor David Meredith said Mr Carlyle had been involved in a number of failed businesses, with former business partners who “didn’t think well of him”.
The court heard on the morning Mr Carlyle was killed, he met Pentland at their office to discuss a business deal.
Pentland told police in 1997 he left the office that morning and spoke to another man,
John Hitchen, about a car service at his Reedy Creek home about 11am.
The court heard Hitchen’s former partner later told police she once saw him take a pistol out of a box and show another person.
Mr Meredith said shortly after Pentland visited them “on a Sunday” Mr Hitchen was upset and the pair went for a drive and he had the box the weapon was in with him.
Mr Meredith argued the motive for the killing included that Pentland and Mr Carlyle’s partnership had “deteriorated”.
He told the court Mr Carlyle insisted on overseas travel, but was not investing any money in the business.
Mr Meredith also argued Mr Carlyle was having an online romance with a woman in the US and this was part of his drive to travel overseas.
Mr Holt QC told the court other people would have had the opportunity to commit the murder, which had “occurred well after” Pentland left the office that day in 1997.
“Mr Carlyle had received … multiple threats from a range of other people over very many years,” he said.
“… The police narrowed their focus on Mr Pentland far too early in this investigation and the result is a desperately thin circumstantial case.” The trial continues.