A horse farrier accused of murdering a woman told police she got him to stop his car before getting out after he broke off their relationship on the afternoon she vanished in 2012.
James "Jim" Scott Church said he dropped Leisl Smith at the Old Bakery on the Pacific Highway in Wyong, on the NSW Central Coast, after she said: "Let me out".
"I have got nothing to hide," Church said in his fifth police interview played in the Supreme Court on Thursday.
The 53-year-old has pleaded not guilty in the NSW Supreme Court to murdering the 23-year-old, who disappeared on August 19, 2012.
Her body has never been found.
The Crown alleges Church killed her after she told people she was pregnant to him and because he wanted to save his new relationship with Belinda Lees.
But the defence contends other scenarios could not be ruled out including that Ms Smith's violent ex-boyfriend could have been involved or that she disappeared on purpose.
In the April 9, 2013 interview, Church says he had told lies before but "now was the time to tell the truth" and "I don't want to hide anything".
Police obtained CCTV footage showed Church giving Ms Smith a lift at Tuggerah railway station the afternoon she went missing.
He told police he was caught in a relationship with two women, having feelings both for Ms Lees and Ms Smith.
After Ms Smith phoned him for a lift when he assumed her car must have broken down, he tried to put her off but ended up going to the station.
While he said he previously told police they didn't speak during the ride to Wyong, he said they had and her contact had been "a complete ploy to see me".
"She led me to believe she was in distress."
Ms Smith had questioned him about their relationship and he said "no, it's done".
She had asked something like "are you going to be with that slut" referring to Ms Lees, and he told her he had made his decision.
She then told him to stop the car and got out at the Old Bakery, while he drove off directly to have dinner at the home of some horse trainer friends at Willow Tree.
He told police while he previously said he had been with his parents later that afternoon, he subsequently realised it must have been the evening he went to the dinner after police obtained information about him being further away.
"I don't know what I had for dinner but I know I took a bottle of red wine," he said.
Days before the police interview, he went to visit the horse trainer to check that their dinner had been on August 19 and the friend referred to a diary entry saying "Churchie dinner".
The judge-alone trial, before Justice Elizabeth Fullerton, will resume on Monday.
