Katie Foreman was supposed to end up in hospital, not dead, one of those accused of her murder allegedly told a close friend just weeks after the young solicitor perished in a deliberately lit fire at her Corrimal home.
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A Supreme Court jury was yesterday played an audio recording of a conversation between murder accused Michelle Sharon Proud and then-friend Danielle Gallagher in December 2011, less than two months after Ms Foreman's October 27 death.
Proud, who began the conversation by asking Ms Gallagher if she could keep a "really, really, really big secret", went on to tell her friend that Ms Foreman was only meant to be "bashed" and "put in hospital" the night she was killed.
She said her friend, Wendy Anne Evans, had been having problems with Ms Foreman and wanted to pay someone to "do something about it".
She told Ms Gallagher that Bernard Justin Spicer, whom she referred to by the nickname "BJ", had agreed to help Evans because they needed the money to buy another car. However, she said killing Ms Foreman was never part of the plan.
"All BJ was supposed to do ... like I said to BJ, all you do is, is you go in there and mess her up a bit," Proud is heard saying to Ms Gallagher on the audio recording.
"I said damage her face because she [thinks] she's crash hot, so, like, she could f--- anyone she wanted ... so just damage her face ... bash her a bit and that, put her in hospital to the point that her face can't be fixed and no-one will want her after that.
"The night we went down there ... they went and got the fuel and they weren't supposed to kill her but they ended up killing her when they lit the house on fire."
When asked by Ms Gallagher who set the house on fire, Proud responded: "BJ and Wendy. It was only supposed to be a warning for her [Ms Foreman] to back off. He was sick when he found out on the news she was killed."
Proud was then heard claiming to Ms Gallagher that the police had no idea of Spicer's involvement in the crime.
"No-one knows about BJ's involved," Proud said.
"[He's] finding an alibi now to say he stayed here [in western Sydney] and just me and the kids went down and Wendy came up and picked us up."
Earlier, the one-time boyfriend of Evans and Ms Foreman, Scott Field, told the court Evans once had to be forcibly removed from the visiting area of Cooma jail after becoming abusive when the issue of his sexual relationship with Ms Foreman was raised.
"She became abusive ... They physically had to remove her [from the room]."
The trial continues.
