A prostitute who had been with Leah Stephens the night she was snatched from upper Queen St underwent hypnosis to help police gather information.
The 28-year-old woman, who is married and has given up working the street, was giving evidence in the trial of four people charged in connection with the killings of Dean Fuller-Sandys and Leah Stephens.
The woman, who has name suppression, said she and Leah Stephens were working as prostitutes on August 26, 1989, the night Leah Stephens disappeared.
They had arranged to meet after work at a Fort St nightclub but Leah Stephens never arrived. Her remains were found three years later near the Woodhill Forest.
Cross-examined by defence lawyer Mark Edgar, the woman agreed she had taken the "extraordinary step" of undergoing hypnosis to try to remember as much as she could about the night Leah Stephens disappeared.
Before the court are Stephen Ralph Stone, aged 29, and Gail Denise Maney, 31, both accused of murdering Mr Fuller-Sandys around August 21, 1989.
Stone is accused of the rape and murder of Leah Stephens five days later.
Maney is also accused with her brother Colin Neil Maney, 27, and Mark William Henrikson, 32, of disposing of Mr Fuller-Sandys' body.
Leah Stephens' friend told the court that she contacted the police a couple of days after the disappearance, and stopped working as a prostitute a week later.
Under cross-examination, the woman told of Leah Stephens' relationships, the jealousies involved, and how she had been troubled about a week before she disappeared and how she had been smacked around.
The woman told how Leah Stephens was familiar with the Woodhill Forest and how she used to go there trail-bike riding with one of the Crown's prime witnesses - who has been given immunity from prosecution for helping to dispose of the bodies of Mr Fuller-Sandys and Leah Stephens.
Another principal witness who helped to dump the bodies also has immunity. The jury will hear their evidence next week.
The woman agreed with defence lawyer Adam Couchman that at one stage police were "putting the heat on her" over the Fullers-Sandys case.
She said Leah Stephens' trail-biking friend had told the police that she had told Stone that Leah Stephens was "mouthing" about a murder she had seen.
The woman denied knowing Stone, Henrikson or Gail Maney and said the witness was a "sneaky" person who could not be trusted.
In answer to a question from Mr Edgar, she said that the trail-biker had also claimed she had been present when Mr Fuller-Sandys was murdered.
The woman adamantly told the police she had never been to Gail Maney's Larnoch Rd address in Henderson where Mr Fuller-Sandys was allegedly killed.
Asked by Stone's lawyer, Roger Chambers, whether a convicted offender, Steven Karl Collie, was one of the trail-biker's friends, the woman said she did not know the name.
Mr Chambers said that at one stage there had been a major investigation into Collie's alleged involvement in Leah Stephens' disappearance and murder.
The trial continues today with a visit to Larnoch Rd and the beach at Whatipu where Mr Fuller-Sandys' car was found.
Pictured: Leah Stephens
Witness recalls victim's final night
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