Linda Britton’s Nambucca Heads double-manslaughter trial continues

A witness in a double-manslaughter trial has told a court he pulled the man from a vehicle and “jumped all over his head”.

A makeshift memorial at the scene of the incident at a Nambucca shopping centre car park.

The brother of one of two women who were run over and killed at a Nambucca Heads shopping centre attacked the man who he believed was driving the vehicle, a court has heard.

Harold Widders told the jury trial on Tuesday he reefed the man from the vehicle and “jumped all over his head” after his sister, Kazzandra Widders, 20, and Skye Luland, 24, were run over in the Nambucca Plaza carpark on September 28, 2019.

Both women died at the scene.

Linda Britton, 54, is charged with their manslaughter in a trial before Judge Jonathan Priestley at the Coffs Harbour District Court. Ms Britton is the mother of Skye Luland, one of the victims.

Ms Britton has pleaded not guilty to the charges.

The Crown contends that Ms Britton was the driver, however Mr Widders told the court that David Luland had been behind the wheel.

Defence counsel Ben Cochrane asked Mr Widders whether he had said he had “split” Mr Luland from “a***hole to breakfast”, the court heard.

“I could have,” Mr Widders replied.

Earlier on the day of the incident, the court heard that Mr Widders had been at a party and consuming alcohol and cannabis, when a young relative reported he had been confronted by someone at the plaza.

A makeshift memorial at the scene of the incident at a Nambucca shopping centre car park.

Mr Widders told the court that he and others had travelled by car to the shopping centre to investigate.

He said the short drive to the complex was to “see who they were and why they were chasing” his relative, the court heard.

“No one was going down there for a big brawl,” Mr Widders said.

During the cross-examination, Mr Cochrane put to Mr Widders that the carpark late that night had been “a scene of chaos and mayhem”.

“They started this altercation, not us,” Mr Widders said.

The court was told earlier in his testimony that he had been hit in the back with a ”golf stick or stick of some sort”.

Mr Cochrane asked Mr Widders whether he had struck an “older lady” who was in the car.

Mr Widders told the court he had not, but had used his fists against the man who he believed was the driver.

“I did jump on him as well,” Mr Widders told the court.

“What was I supposed to do, he’d just killed my sister.”

The trial continues.