Karen Williams murder trial: SA court told alleged murderer Nikola Novakovich raped a woman while calling her ‘Karen’

KAREN Williams’s alleged murderer raped a woman years later, calling her “Karen” while boasting he had killed the teenager in the same way, a court has heard.

KAREN Williams’s alleged murderer raped a woman years later, calling her “Karen” while boasting he had killed the teenager in the same way, a court has heard.

A woman, who cannot be identified, has told the Supreme Court that Nikola Novakovich claimed responsibility for the infamous cold case while violently raping her.

She said she kept the incident a secret for almost 20 years because Novakovich had vowed to kill her if she went to the police.

Lawyers for Novakovich, however, have accused the woman of “making up” her evidence in an effort to earn a $200,000 police reward for information leading to a conviction.

Novakovich, 42, has pleaded not guilty to murdering Miss Williams at Coober Pedy on August 4, 1990.

Her disappearance has become one of South Australia’s most infamous cold cases, prompting repeated and intensive searches of mine shafts in and around the town.

Prosecutors have alleged Novakovich killed Miss Williams because she had witnessed him and another man robbing an opal miner just days earlier.

They alleged he either shot, or raped and strangled, Miss Williams based on accounts he subsequently gave to two witnesses — accounts defence counsel insist are inadmissable.

The woman who claims Novakovich raped her gave evidence in a closed-court hearing yesterday.

Today, Justice Tim Stanley granted The Advertiser access to a transcript of her testimony.

Giving evidence, the woman said she knew nothing of Novakovich’s involvement with Miss Williams until an argument they had in the late 1990s.

“He smacked me in the back of the head ... he was angry, very angry ... I was scared, I was crying,” she said.

“He was yelling at me, like he always was ... he said ‘that’s how Karen felt’ ... he just went off his face at me.

“He said that he strangled her and raped her and put her down a mineshaft.”

The woman said Novakovich raped her while asking “do you like this, Karen?” and “take this, Karen”, and then left her and went into another room.

“He goes ‘if you tell anybody what I just told you, I will kill you’,” she said.

“He was using speed and marijuana ... he used to be very violent when he was on both of those things together.”

Marie Shaw, QC, for Novakovich, said the woman had not come forward with the information until 2012.

“You want the reward, don’t you?” she asked.

The woman denied this, prompting Ms Shaw to ask: “So when this is all over, whatever happens, you won’t be asking one penny for a reward?”

“No,” the woman replied.

“He told me to keep my mouth shut, that’s why I didn’t say nothing.”

Ms Shaw suggested the woman had a history of dishonesty offences, gambling issues and drug use and that her testimony was unreliable.

“I suggest you just made up your story today about what happened, isn’t that right?” she asked.

The woman replied: “No, it was all true.”

The trial, before Justice Stanley and in the absence of a jury, continues.