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Newcastle Herald
Newcastle Herald
National
Sam Rigney

'I saw Danielle's body on the bed': accused killer's mate gives evidence in murder trial

Danielle Easey was killed and her body dumped in Cockle Creek in 2019. Justin Dilosa has pleaded not guilty to her murder and is on trial in NSW Supreme Court.

Jeremy Princehorn had been drinking and using drugs for a couple of days when his friends drove him to a house on the Central Coast and showed him the body of murdered mother Danielle Easey lying face down on a bed.

It was August, 2019, and Ms Easey, 29, had been stabbed in the back and struck in the head with a blunt object, similar to a hammer, a day earlier, her body left in the bedroom of a home in Reeves Street, Narara.

Justin Kent Dilosa, now 37, has pleaded not guilty to murdering Ms Easey and is facing an estimated six-week trial in NSW Supreme Court.

He denies being involved in Ms Easey's killing, but admits to participating in the cover-up and dumping of Ms Easey's body in Cockle Creek and has pleaded guilty to being an accessory after the fact.

On Monday, Mr Dilosa's former friend, Jeremy Princehorn, told the jury he was having a bonfire in his backyard at Cardiff on a night in August, 2019, when a number of people, including Mr Dilosa and Carol McHenry, came over.

Under questioning from Crown prosecutor John Stanhope, Mr Princehorn said, at some point, there was a discussion about "things being put in the fire".

"I knew a knife was in the fire," Mr Princehorn said. "I didn't get to see anyone put it in there. But I knew it was in there."

When asked if anyone said why the knife was put in the fire, Mr Princehorn replied: "Justin was sort of hinting that he did something bad. He didn't say what or anything. I didn't want to know anyway."

Mr Princehorn, who had been drinking and using methamphetamine and cannabis for a couple of days at the time of the bonfire, said he thought the knife was Mr Dilosa's "big hunting knife" and that he later saw Mr Dilosa put the burnt pieces of the blade in a vice.

Mr Princehorn said the next day he was driven to Ms McHenry's house in Reeves Street, Narara with Ms McHenry and Mr Dilosa.

"We went inside and into the kitchen," Mr Princehorn recalled. "Justin went into the bedroom and I followed him in there and saw Danielle's body on the bed."

He said Ms Easey was face down on the bed and he couldn't see any injuries or blood.

"Justin lifted up her arm and then I just got out of there," Mr Princehorn said.

He said he went back into the loungeroom where he spoke to Ms McHenry and smoked some ice.

"I asked who did it and she said she stabbed her," Mr Princehorn said of Ms McHenry.

Mr Princehorn said he didn't ask why because he was "scared for my own safety at that point" and wanted to "watch what I said".

He said there was some mention of the pair using cable ties to tie Ms Easey up before the group left the house and Mr Princehorn was dropped back to Cardiff.

Ms Easey's body was later found wrapped in plastic and duct tape in Cockle Creek at Killingworth on August 31.

Mr Stanhope told the jury last week that there would be no dispute that Ms McHenry "had a part to play in the killing of Danielle Easey".

But he said the prosecution case is that both Ms McHenry and Mr Dilosa were "directly involved" in Ms Easey's death and Mr Dilosa stabbed Ms Easey in the home at Narara on August 17, 2019.

The trial will focus on the evidence of several former associates of Ms McHenry and Mr Dilosa, who Mr Stanhope said were involved in using methamphetamine, and who say the pair made a number of admissions about murdering Ms Easey.

"Everything was fine until the crack ran out," Mr Dilosa allegedly told an associate. "She started to lose it. "She was saying she was gonna bring everyone down. Then it happened. I stabbed her in the head and in the back."

The trial, before Justice Deborah Sweeney, continues.

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