A MAN extradited from Britain to face a charge of murdering his lover 25 years ago, once held her hostage with an axe, a court has heard.
Stephen Albert Hutton, 55, was extradited from England last year to face a charge of murdering Sandra Therese White on or about August 11, 1985.
Her charred remains were found the following day after a caravan fire in Yandoit, northwest of Melbourne. Neighbour Judith Lynette Cross on Monday told the Melbourne Magistrates Court that on the day before her death, Ms White came to her door in fear.
“She said: ‘Steve has had me hostage all day with an axe’,” Ms Cross said in her statement. Ms White allegedly told Ms Cross that Hutton had forced her to drink champagne for breakfast and had pushed her around, but didn’t hurt her with the axe.
Ms Cross told the committal hearing that after the incident, Ms White ran in fear from her house and from one neighbour’s house to another “Like a terrified cat”. “She looked totally terrified to me. She was shaking,” Ms Cross said. Ms Cross explained that she and Ms White had been close friends for five years.
Ms Cross added that Ms White had said that when Hutton came to visit her the previous night, he was a “little bit disturbed” and she felt he needed psychiatric help. “She said to me: ‘Steven has flipped’,” Ms Cross explained, before saying she rang the local hospital, who advised her to call police.
But the police said they couldn’t do anything because Ms White had not been physically hurt yet. “I was pretty upset by the whole situation,” Ms Cross said. Ms Cross said Ms White calmed down and returned home. But the neighbour became concerned when her friend didn’t turn up for a party at her house the next day.
That night, Ms Cross saw a glow outside her house but didn’t think anything of it. Neighbour Kenneth Taun and his friend spotted the burnt-out caravan and found a skeleton inside.
He said there was debris everywhere and the body was covered in blackened coathangers. “They were all in a bunch, stacked up as though they’d been laying on her body,” he said.
They alerted police. But the court heard Ms White’s body was removed before arson squad detectives could examine the scene.
The first policeman on the scene, Raymond Elliott (Elliott), said that he could not find anything suspicious about the death so the body was transferred to the local hospital mortuary.
But Mr Elliott, who is now retired, said he felt “physically sick” when he later learnt from another officer that a “heavy domestic dispute” had occurred at the property the night before.
He also learnt that the accused was seen at a hotel on the night of the alleged murder and that his demeanour was “not right”.
Mr Elliott said that upon learning the new information, he contacted police “straight away” and preserved the scene until arson detectives arrived. Hutton, of Farnborough in Hampshire, England, left Australia on October 25, 1986, and did not return. He was ordered last year to return to Australia after losing an appeal to the High Court in London.
The hearing is continuing.
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