Accused murderer’s lover changes her testimony

THE woman at the centre of a love triangle murder at Esk has claimed she repeatedly lied to authorities because she was too scared to tell the truth until now.

THE woman at the centre of a love triangle murder at Esk has claimed she repeatedly lied to authorities because she was too scared to tell the truth until now.

Trichelle Cheney's lover, Anthony Charles Oliver, 38, is on trial for murdering her husband, Norman Desmond Cheney, 41, and this is the first time she has changed a key element in her story.

Mr Oliver has pleaded not guilty to murder, claiming he shot Mr Cheney in the head in self-defence, but has admitted he concreted the body into a 44-gallon barrel and dumped it in the Caboolture River.

Bushwalkers found the barrel, with parts of the body exposed, on February 5, 2011.

Mrs Cheney, who was living on the Sunshine Coast at the time, woke in a motel room when Mr Oliver returned home from getting drugs with Mr Cheney, who was previously oblivious to his best mate's affair with his wife, at Somerset Dam in December, 2010.

She had always claimed Mr Oliver told her Mr Cheney, who had learned of the affair, threatened to kill her, her mother and their son Shae.

Mrs Cheney has said Mr Oliver told her Mr Cheney tried to attack him with a knife and poured petrol over him, before he shot Mr Cheney in the head.

"(Norm) got out and put petrol on him. Norm's an extremely strong and powerful guy," Brisbane Supreme Court heard she had previously said under oath.

"(Anthony) said he shot him. That's when I went into shut-down mode. I didn't ask any more questions because I just didn't want to know."

Mrs Cheney also said she believed the petrol story because when he was a boy aged 14 Mr Cheney had poured petrol over himself and caused burns when he set himself alight.

The court heard that she had maintained the story through three days of Crime and Misconduct Commission hearings, three days giving police statements and during a committal hearing for the murder.

Yesterday Mrs Cheney testified that she lied about the petrol because Mr Oliver had told her to give that version. She said she also made up the story about her husband's use of petrol as a teen.

Asked why she had suddenly changed that part of the story, she told the court she was "scared".

When defence barrister Michael Byrne noted his client had been in custody, Mrs Cheney said there were "people on the outside" that could still hurt her. The trial continues.

Originally published as Accused murderer’s lover changes her testimony