A Melbourne man accused of brutally stabbing a nurse to death more than three decades ago allegedly confessed to the killing at least twice, prosecutors have told his murder trial.
But Colin Graham, 66, today appeared in the Supreme Court of Victoria where he maintained that he had nothing to do with Ina-Doris Warrick's death, and denied ever making any admissions.
The 25-year-old nurse was stabbed to death at her Ringwood North home in March 1986, but her killer was never found.
The Supreme Court heard that on the night that Ms Warrick died, she had dinner with Mr Graham at an Italian restaurant and, afterwards, he drove her home.
But that is where accounts begin to diverge.
Defence lawyer Malcolm Thomas told the jury that Mr Graham's night ended there.
"The defence position is that he left her, knowing that she'd be going to work and went home, and was home when his wife got home at 9:30pm," Mr Thomas said.
But crown prosecutor Robyn Harper put a different account to the jury.
"The accused man entered the house with Ms Warrick or followed her inside. Within minutes of walking her to the door, it was in these moments that the accused man stabbed Ina-Doris Warrick twice in the back," Ms Harper said.
"She'd not even removed her high heels and her handbag was on the bed next to where her body was found," she said.
"The contents of her stomach indicated that the pizza she ate at dinner had not yet been digested."
Mr Graham told investigations he learned about Ms Warrick's death on the news, but prosecutors today told the jury that he allegedly made "admissions" on a number of occasions.
The court heard that in May 2012, Mr Graham allegedly told a man that "he'd done a murder and they haven't got him yet".
In the same year, prosecutors said he told another man that he had killed Ms Warrick.
"He said he was not a bloke to be messed with," Ms Harper, the prosecutor, said.
"The accused told him he went out for dinner with her, went back to her house for a cup of tea, she didn't want to have sex with him and he killed her," she said.
Mr Harper told the jury that there were several discussions with the same witness.
"[The witness] thinks [Mr Graham] said they went out for Italian. It was the early eighties and he still had the clothes he did it in," she told the jury.
But Mr Graham's defence lawyer said those conversations never took place, and called into question the credibility of the witnesses.
Allegations made against Mr Graham after million-dollar reward offered
The court heard that when the investigation into Ms Warrick's death was reopened in 2015, it was featured on a television show.
"There was a program, Million Dollar Cold Case, which aired offering, not surprisingly given the title, a million-dollar reward," Mr Thomas, the defence lawyer, said.
"It's not in issue between the parties that it was only after that time that these three men made statements to police, claiming that Mr Graham had made admissions to them.
"It's disputed … that such conversations ever happened."
The trial continues.
