Two emergency service workers have given conflicting accounts about their movements on the evening they were called to check on the welfare of Illawarra teen Louise O'Brien, whose body was found in a buried bin at a property north of Wollongong 2½ years later.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Police sergeant David Potts gave evidence on Tuesday at the Wollongong District Court trial of a mother and son accused of being accessories after the teen's 2008 manslaughter.
Sgt Potts said he was first to arrive at 7.45pm on October 12, 2008 at the property where the teen was allegedly seen in poor health earlier that day.
He told the court he spoke to the home's middle-aged female occupant, who said Louise was not at the home, but was fine and had moved to Melbourne.
Sgt Potts said ambulance paramedics arrived at the scene while he was talking to the woman, but remained in the vehicle.
He said he had a brief conversation with the paramedics before leaving the property at 7.58pm.
However, paramedic Frank Michlmayr said he did not see any police at the residence when he and his partner arrived at 7.52pm.
He told the court he believed a police car was only "in the vicinity" of the house when he returned to the vehicle a few minutes later after a brief conversation with an elderly woman in her 60s at the front door.
"I asked her [the elderly woman] if anyone at the house had been assaulted or if anyone was injured or needed ambulance assistance," Mr Michlmayr said.
"She said no-one needed an ambulance [and] it may have been a hoax call.
"I don't recall having any interaction with police at the scene."
On Tuesday, jurors were played a tape of Sgt Potts's communication over the police radio system at 7.57pm, in which he was heard saying: "That job I was going to at [address suppressed], I've just been waved down by ambos who've come from there. They said there's no problems there at all. There's no need for the ambos, there's no need for police."
The court heard police were contacted on October 12 and October 13 by friends and family of the accused who had seen Louise on October 12 and were concerned about her health.
Police went to the property on both days, however on each occasion, after speaking with someone at the home, concluded no further police action was required.
Louise's body was found in February 2011.
An elderly woman has been sentenced to jail for her manslaughter.
The trial continues before Judge Paul Conlon.
