KEY POINTS:
A witness told yesterday how he heard a woman's screams coming from the flat of a man accused of murder.
Glen Green was giving evidence at a depositions hearing for Ashley Donald Peach who is charged with murdering cat protection worker Kerry Leigh Downey, 52, in August last year.
He told the Christchurch District Court that the first scream was about 6pm, but he took no notice of it. He heard another scream about 8pm, which he said "left me spellbound, and in shock".
He didn't hear anything else so ignored that scream as well.
His friend Michael McCabe, who was in the flat at the time of the second scream, said in evidence that he heard a short, loud scream but thought it was a domestic.
"You wouldn't think it was a homicide going on. You just brush it aside."
Peach, 41, is charged with murdering Ms Downey at his flat at Upper Riccarton, Christchurch, on August 18 last year after she called there to pick up an unwanted cat.
Her body was found on the Port Hills two days later.
The Crown says belongings, documents, and items of clothing from Ms Downey were found at Peach's flat and in the rubbish skip for the block of flats.
A young man in the flat next to Peach, Luke Mason, said he had known Peach for about three weeks and had quick chats and cups of tea with him.
He said Peach told him that a woman had moved out of his flat and left a cat with him.
He already had his own cat and was only allowed one, so he had contacted someone to come and pick the cat up.
Evidence in the hearing before JPs John O'Hara and Bruce Dawson continued all afternoon but almost all of it was suppressed at the request of defence counsel David Stringer.
- NZPA
