Police allege murder accused Nilisi Kaniki, 30, deleted SMS saying ‘bro I was with you last night if anyone asks’

A man accused of bashing his pregnant girlfriend to death has been grilled about a message police allege was deleted from his phone in which he told a contact to say he’d been with them “if anyone asks”.

Crestmead alleged murder victim Selma Adem Ibrahim

The moment police confronted a man with an allegedly deleted “alibi” text after he’s accused of bashing his pregnant girlfriend to death has been played to the jury.

Nilisi Kaniki, 30, has pleaded not guilty to the murder of Selma Ibrahim, 24.

Brisbane’s Supreme Court has heard Ms Ibrahim was about seven weeks’ pregnant at the time although she was likely unaware of this.

The trial has heard Ms Ibrahim was declared dead at 7.07am on September 25, 2019, by paramedics who had been called to her Crestmead home by Kaniki.

A recording of his interview with detectives later that day was played to the jury on Tuesday.

“Can you explain why we have text messages … at 7.16 this morning saying ‘bro I was with you last night if anyone asks’,” one of the detectives asked Kaniki.

“That was deleted from the phone.”

Kaniki denied sending the message.

“Nah,” he said when the message was read out to him.

The detective said the message had come from the same phone Kaniki used to call triple-0.

In his opening address to the jury Crown prosecutor Nathan Crane labelled the text “quite the age-old setting up of an alibi”.

Selma Adem Ibrahim was declared dead at 7.07am on September 25, 2019, by paramedics.

Kaniki told police he had spent some time with Ms Ibrahim the night before her death then left her in a “fine” condition to get drugs, returning around 6.30am to find her unconscious.

In his police interview Kaniki said he called triple-0.

“I was crying on the phone and I pushed and I pushed,” Kaniki said while demonstrating CPR compression strokes with his arms.

At the end of the interview detectives placed him under arrest for homicide.

Defence barrister Jacob Robson said there was no direct evidence against his client and warned the jury about jumping to conclusions.

He questioned why his client would lie about being away between midnight and 6.30am when, on the prosecution’s case, the injuries were likely inflicted before midnight.

“How is that an alibi?” he said during his opening statement.

Kaniki has also pleaded not guilty to unlawful assault of a pregnant female destroying the life of a child before its birth.

The trial continues.

Originally published as Police allege murder accused Nilisi Kaniki, 30, deleted SMS saying ‘bro I was with you last night if anyone asks’