Cousin Woken For Confession

Illawarra Mercury

Thursday July 8, 1999

By JENNY DENNIS

A man accused of bashing Nowra man Mark Robson to death nine years ago woke his cousin the morning after the murder and confessed, a court has heard.

Anthony Scott, of Eden, told the NSW Supreme Court his cousin, Trevor Anthony Thomas, had come to a house he (Scott) was living in at Hillcrest Ave, South Nowra, early on the morning of May 29 and told him: ``I think I just killed a bloke at Silver City."

On Tuesday, in the same court, mother of four Jennifer Gatt said Thomas had also told her he thought he'd killed ``a white bloke".

She said on May 29 Thomas had taken her for a walk to Silver City, an Aboriginal settlement in South Nowra, and shown her a burnt body smouldering on a fire.

Mrs Gatt said Thomas had insisted she view the body, allegedly telling her he'd harm her children if she didn't go with him.

She told Crown Prosecutor Peter Barrett she'd heard voices arguing in the Hillcrest Ave house the night before, but had gone to bed without seeing anything.

But yesterday, under cross-examination from defence counsel Graham Turnbull, Mrs Gatt said she'd witnessed a bashing that night.

She said she'd gone to sleep in the loungeroom after a night of heavy drinking and had woken up to see a man she knew only as ``Mark" being bashed.

She denied she had had anything to do with the murder of 27-year-old Mr Robson, or with the disposal of his body.

Thomas, 34, is on trial for the murder of Mr Robson, whose decomposed skull was found on a footpath in Hillcrest Ave on June 13, 1990.

The skull was identified using dental records, but no further remains were ever found and it was to be a further seven years before charges were laid.

The trial, which is in its fourth day, continues today before Justice Harold Sperling.

© 1999 Illawarra Mercury

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