A former Queensland Quarry employee is committed to standing for the alleged murder of a native woman more than ten years ago.
Warning: This article contains details that are said before the court of threats and violence that some readers may find disturbing.
A 23-year-old Kowanyama woman, known for cultural reasons such as Mrs. Bernard, was last seen in a pub in the city of Coen of Cape York on 10 February 2013.
Mrs. Bernard is said to have left the bar with Thomas Maxwell Byrnes, 63, with the intention of going to a quarry where he worked on Archer River, 68 kilometers north of Coen.
Mrs. Bernard’s family reported that she was missing a few days later, which gave rise to a search for the surrounding Bushland, the home base of several non -used mine shafts, but her body was never found.
Mrs. Bernard’s photo is used with the permission of her family. ((Delivered: Mrs. Bernard’s family))
Byrnes was accused of the murder of Mrs. Bernard in January last year and has since remained in custody.
He has had to deal with various hearings in the Cairns Magistrates Court since May, where various witnesses have been investigated.
Witnesses Witnesses
In one case, the former manager of the Exchange Hotel in Coen, Dean Lloyd, Mr Byrnes said an ordinary patron at the bar.
Mr Lloyd told the court that he remembered that he had a conversation with Mr Byrnes and another customer where they discussed Mrs. Bernard’s disappearance.
He said it seemed to him that Mr Byrnes had been intoxicated.
“He then said,” I took on [Ms Bernard] From the pub and the intention was to go home, “something in that sense and” you know what happened next, “he said.
The Exchange Hotel in Coen, where Mrs. Bernard was last seen in February 2013. ((ABC Far North: Holly Richardson))
Mr. Lloyd said he “froze” and answered by saying that he did not know what happened afterwards.
He said Mr Byrnes took a while to respond.
“He got still, death silent … I remember the look in his eye,”
he said.
“He looked at me and [the other patron] And said, “You say something, you will be placed next to her and will never be found.”
‘Left-Field’ comments
A regular visitor to the Coen Exchange Hotel, Jacqueline May Greenhalgh, told another hearing that she spoke with other regulars such as Mr Byrnes.
She said that words were “etched” in her mind in a conversation with a group of people who followed Mrs. Bernard’s disappearance.
Thomas Byrnes was accused of murder last year and was taken into custody. ((ABC Far North: Holly Richardson))
Mrs. Greenhalgh said that Mr Byrnes made unexpected comments that Mrs. Bernard’s body would not be found by the authorities.
“They were comments from the left field,” Die F ** King Black B ** Ch Pissing in my car, “and how they will never find her,”
she said.
More conversations
In a hearing on Tuesday, Coen -resident Neville Shepherd told the court that he had a conversation with Mr Byrnes in 2017 or 2018 when he said that Mrs. Bernard had bitten him on the penis.
In the same conversation, Mr Shepherd said that Mr Byrnes also said that he “called her”.
Mr Byrnes’ lawyer, James Sheridan, asked Mr Shepherd’s memory of the conversation and noted that Mr. Shepherd had a hearing.
Witnesses gave personal evidence and through a video link during various hearings in the Cairns Magistrates Court. ((ABC Far North Qld: Brendan Mounter))
Sheridan asked Mr Shepherd if Mr Byrnes may have said, “She was a bit rough.”
Mr Shepherd said that was possible.
He said that Mr Byrnes also told him that Mrs. Bernard “left” and he did not ask him what that meant.
Magistraat Scott Luxton committed Mr Byrnes to beed in the Supreme Court of Cairns on a date that is determined.
Byrnes has not introduced a plea and remains in custody.
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