Mark-Bry Leedham facing trial, first witness called to give evidence in Michael Purse alleged murder trial

A woman who was allegedly in the same unit as Michael Purse as he was “brutally murdered” has told a court his final screeches “sounded like an animal being slaughtered”.

A woman who was allegedly in the same unit as Michael Purse as he was “brutally murdered” has told a court his final screeches “sounded like an animal being slaughtered” before she got into a car that “smelled like a dead body”.

Giving evidence in Mark-Bry Leedham’s murder trial on Wednesday, a woman, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, told Auxiliary Justice Kevin Nicholson she was in a bedroom in the Kilburn unit when Michael Purse was allegedly killed in February 2019.

Prosecutors allege Mr Purse was murdered after he was unable to repay a drug debt to Mr Leedham, who had allegedly given him a week to hand over cash and mobile phones.

The woman told the court she and Mr Purse had gone to the address with Mr Leedham on the evening of February 7, 2019 under the false pretence they would be collecting drugs to sell, but when they walked through the door, it was clear something wasn’t adding up.

“When we got out of the car (after arriving at the unit), I told Michael that I didn’t feel right about this and we should go, and he said everything would be fine and ‘he’s got this’,” she told the court.

“He was overly confident. But very quickly, Mark punched Michael, and Michael was on his knees. Someone in the corner said ‘you’re a bit f***ed aren’t you mate’ and then Mark asked for tape, and then Mark taped Michael’s hands together.”

She said she saw Mr Leedham wrapping Mr Purse’s hands in duct tape, like “tape mittens”, before she was forced into another room with someone else.

Michael Jeffrey Purse was allegedly murdered in February 2019.

She said she could hear what was happening to Mr Purse through the walls.

“I could hear muffled voices, but I couldn’t make out what was said,” she said.

“But at one point I heard just the most horrible noise, like a wounded animal being killed.

“It was sort of like the sound you hear when an animal is killed. That screech, that’s the best way I could describe it.

“It was Michael. The week beforehand, a scream I heard him make was the same.”

The woman told the court that when she was able to leave the room the next morning, Mr Leedham and Mr Purse were not at the address.

Police searching along Shepherds Corner Road for the remains of Michael Jeffrey Purse, who is believed to have been buried in a shallow grave in the area. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Kelly Barnes

She said she later got into a car to go and purchase drugs with other people who were in the unit, but when she got in the car, she could smell something awful.

“We got in a car, and all I remember was … I don’t know if you know what a dead body smells like but I was in the back seat and there was a whole bunch of air fresheners trying to cover up the smell.

“It wasn’t a subtle smell. It was like when we had a bunch of field mice exterminated in our roof. It smelled exactly like that.”

Mr Leedham has been charged with Mr Purse’s murder, with a trial by Judge-alone kicking off months after his two co-accused were jailed after admitting to manslaughter.

The trial continues.

‘Tragic end of a young man’s life’: Third person charged over Purse fatal beating

The fatal blow that killed missing man Michael Purse half a decade ago could have come from any of the three men charged with his death, but only one of them is on trial for murder, a court has heard.

On Tuesday, the family of murder victim Michael Purse returned to the South Australian Supreme Court as the third and final man charged over his death faced the first day of his Judge-alone trial.

Mark-Bry Andrew Leedham, now 27, has pleaded not guilty to Mr Purse’s murder, but prosecutors allege he played an integral role in the missing man’s death.

In February, Mr Leedham’s co-accused Edwin James Hinrichsen, 38, and David Graham Young, 41, pleaded guilty to manslaughter on what was scheduled to be the first day of their murder trial.

Their pleas came on the four-year anniversary of the last time Mr Purse was seen alive – his body has yet to be recovered.

The pair were sentenced to eleven years imprisonment and remain in custody.

Opening the trial on Tuesday, Michael Foundas told Auxiliary Justice Kevin Nicholson it was the prosecution case that Mr Leedham had, alongside Hinrichsen and Young, launched a violent attack on Mr Purse in the early hours of February 7, 2019 at a unit in Kilburn.

“It is the prosecution’s case that Michael Purse, a young man in his early 30s, was taken to an apartment in Kilburn where he was bound with duct tape, viciously beaten and ultimately killed,” Mr Foundas said.

“A tragic end of a young man’s life brought about by the combined actions of the accused, Mark-Bry Leedham, and two other men. He was punched, kicked, viciously stomped on, stabbed and strangled first with a cord, and after that broke, held in a headlock and killed. He was rolled into a rug, and shoved into the back of a small car where his decomposing body remained for a day or two, before being taken to an unknown grave.

“It is the prosecution case that Mr Leedham brought the now deceased Mr Purse to the apartment in Kilburn where he was killed. He directed Mr Purse be bound with the duct tape. He initiated the violence and he attempted to strangle him with headphones cord, and he plunged a knife into Mr Purse’s restrained and gagged body,” he alleged.

Mr Foundas said that during the trial, two key witnesses, whose identities have been suppressed, will give evidence as well as various detectives and two farmers who allegedly helped Mr Leedham and another man un-bog their car as they travelled to dispose of Mr Purse’s body.

Major Crime Investigation Branch conducting a search on Shepherd Corner Rd, Balaklava. Picture: NCA / NewsWire Emma Brasier

He said it would, however, be up to Auxiliary Justice Nicholson to determine that the fatal blow could have been the stab wound, the headlock or being stomped on as individual causes, or a combination of the three.

“The prosecution relies on principles of joint enterprise, so it’s the prosecution’s case that, respectfully, it doesn’t matter much which of those, or which combination of those blows, caused the death of Mr Purse,” Mr Foundas said.

“It is our case that Mr Leedham’s actions, that include stabbing him and then attempting to strangle him, not only demonstrate his participation in that enterprise, but also provide evidence of the intended outcome, that is his conduct evidenced an intention to either kill or cause grievous bodily harm.”

David Moen, for Mr Leedham, asked Justice Nicholson to question whether a death had indeed taken place.

“It’ll be our submission that the main issue will be whether there is or isn’t a joint criminal enterprise,” he said.

“The other flow on from that is that Your Honour will have to consider if indeed you are satisfied that a death did occur, and indeed, the cause of death, we say, is going to be an issue.”

The trial continues.