Terry Hickson broke into Charles Skarratt’s car the night he died
Accused murderer Terry Hickson has denied his ex-lover’s claim he confessed to killing a Sydney bookmaker, telling a court his blood was in the victim’s car because he broke into it on the night of the murder.
NSW
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A penniless punter who allegedly murdered a Sydney greyhound bookmaker 30 years ago insists the only reason his blood was found inside Charles Skarratt’s car was because he’d broken into it earlier that night.
Terry John Gordon Hickson denies stabbing the 72-year-old Dapto Dogs veteran to death in 1989 during a botched robbery at his Woolwich home.
Hickson’s then girlfriend has told his NSW Supreme Court trial he confessed to the killing, but while giving evidence the 60-year-old said his bitter ex-lover is “totally wrong.”
The convicted criminal said he’d armed himself with a crowbar earlier that night on December 21, 1989 and gone down to the racetrack car park in search of the bookie’s Audi.
“I used to open their boots at the course to steal their money out of their book bags,” he said.
“Mr Skarratt’s was the third vehicle … it was quite brazen of me.”
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This week a forensic biologist said Hickson’s DNA matched blood found on the victim’s sock and in his car boot.
“I must have capped my finger on one of the previous vehicles,” Hickson said.
“Maybe I broke the tail light when I'm jamming it … I’ve lifted the boot up, and there’s my blood on his boot.”
Two former associates have testified that Hickson spoke to them about the death the following weekend.
But the Berkeley man, who was on the dole at the time, labelled this "impossible" because he'd been in weekend detention at Long Bay jail.
Hickson allegedly ran off with $25,000 but he denied showing one man a sphere of rolled-up hundred dollar bills “the size of a soccer ball” a few days later.
Broke, in debt and living with his parents, Hickson wanted “easy money” to pay for his gambling and cannabis habits, and needed cash to support his children and spoil his younger blonde girlfriend, the Crown alleges.
Hickson’s estranged partner Tania Morsman previously testified that he’d been stalking a bookmaker at the iconic Dapto venue in the weeks before Mr Skarratt’s death in a plot to mug him.
“I never discussed any robbery with anybody,” Hickson said.
“She’s just been a very, very vicious and vindictive lady.”
No bookie who gave evidence during the trial remembered their cars being targeted that night, but Hickson said this is because he generally used a special sanded-down key to jiggle open the locks.
Ms Morsman said on the night of the murder Hickson announced his plan to fleece a bookie before leaving her Wollongong flat with a balaclava, a knife and overalls.
Hickson denied this, along with Ms Morsman’s evidence that he came home hours later asking her to wash his overalls before throwing the blade in a bin.
Hickson, whose parents ran dogs at the Dapto track, told the jury he'd known of Mr Skarratt for years and “may have” bet at his stalls in the past.
But when police raided his house in 2017, Hickson claimed he’d “never ever heard of the bloke”, Crown prosecutor Craig Everson said.
Mr Skarratt’s wife discovered his bound and beaten body at their lower north shore home and Hickson blames the widow for orchestrating her older husband’s murder to cash in on his multi-million dollar estate.
The trial continues.