‘Skull dragged, flogged and stabbed’: Accused killers allegedly dumped body in concrete pit

A macabre photo of a body wrapped in plastic at the bottom of a pit has been shown at the trial of two men charged with murder and accused of boasting about it.

Andrew Christopher Walsh. Picture: Supplied.

A macabre photo of a body wrapped in plastic at the bottom of a pit has been shown at the trial of two men charged with murder and accused of boasting about it in a recorded phone call before one of them allegedly tried to flee the country.

Dewald De Klerk, 30, and Joshua Robert Searston, 27, have both pleaded not guilty to murdering Andrew Christopher Walsh, 35, at an industrial business site on Musgrave Rd Coopers Plains on November 8 2021.

“There is where they left Andrew Christopher Walsh … he’s there in the concrete pit,” Crown prosecutor Chris Cook alleged during his opening address as the image was displayed in Brisbane’s Supreme Court on Monday.

“He’s about 1.4 to 1.5m into that pit … it took police, and contractors they had to get in, days to dig down to get to him there.”

A recorded telephone call between Searston and De Klerk was also played to the jury.

“What were they talking about? They were boasting about killing Andrew Walsh,” he alleged.

The court heard that immediately before allegedly murdering Mr Walsh the defendants attacked a member of the Finks OMCG at the business site, for how he had mixed drugs that were being made at the warehouse, and stole his Finks shirts.

“Then low and behold Andrew Walsh ends up in a Finks shirt in the bottom of a pit filled with concrete that they put him in,” Mr Cook said.

Mr Walsh, known as Ghost, was a down on his luck low level drug dealer who had worked at the Coopers Plains business which involved trucking and couriering, the court heard.

Mr Cook said a fellow drug user known to both Searston and De Klerk alleged that she had been drugged by Mr Walsh with the drug fantasy and woke up thinking she had been sexually assaulted.

It was shortly after this claim that Searston and De Klerk allegedly attacked Walsh at the trucking business.

“Whether Searston and De Klerk’s initial motives were some sort of moral police, they escalated over time to the point they brutally killed Mr Walsh and callously disposed of his body,” Mr Cook alleged.

He said the jury would hear Searston, covered in blood from the attack on the Finks member, “skull dragged” Walsh from a room in the shed at Coopers Plains and proceeded to violently attack him, repeatedly striking him in the head and stabbing him.

“The attack continues, De Klerk joins him they flog him, I think will be a word that you’ll hear used,” Mr Cook said.

“When De Klerk punched Walsh he and Searston laugh, high five, you might hear.

“Whatever their initial motive might have been this quickly descended into pure cruelty on the crown’s case.”

Mr Cook said Mr Walsh mouthed for help from witness Jessica Noy who indicated she couldn’t before Searston allegedly stabbed him again.

“You’ll hear her say that she begged Searston to stop saying ‘stop’ and ‘he doesn’t deserve it’,” Mr Cook said.

“Walsh begged Searston to stop stabbing him, saying something like ‘you punctured my lung I can’t breathe’.

“I expect you’ll hear that Jessica Noy says to Mr De Klerk, something like ‘you can’t keep doing that to that poor man you’ve either got to let him go or finish him’.”

Mr Cook said Noy would tell the jury she later saw a pair of legs protruding from the bathroom.

“That was Andrew Walsh he was dead,” he said.

Mr Cook alleged the defendants later discussed getting a tattoo together “to commemorate their time at this warehouse”.

He said in March 2022 “when the heat was on and the police were closing in” De Klerk was located by Australian Federal Police at Sydney International Airport “attempting on the crown’s case to flee the country”.

Mr Walsh’s girlfriend at the time, Danielle Leigh Gray, said she spoke to him on the phone in the hours before his death.

“He was scared, his voice was petrified, he said he was driving around in circle with a car full of people following him and we arranged to meet up and he never showed up,” she said.

This had followed a text message from Mr Walsh that simply said “help”, the court heard.

Ms Gray said she went to Kangaroo Point cliffs to meet Mr Walsh however he never turned up.

Just before 1am on November 8 2021 she received a message from his phone from a “Kayla”, who she did not know, saying Mr Walsh had been “wigging out” on drugs.

“He’s OK now. He’ll give you a call soon,” the message shown to the court read.

Under cross examination from De Klerk’s barrister David Funch the court heard Mr Walsh had told her that he had a car load full of black and golds, which was a reference to Comanchero bikies.

Mr Funch intimated Mr Walsh had meant they were in the car with him.

“He never said anything about being followed,” Mr Funch said.

“Yes he did,” Ms Gray said.

In her opening address Anna Cappellano, representing Searston, said the main issues in dispute at the trial were her clients actions and intent.

The trial continues Tuesday.