Key witness ‘pressured’ to change evidence in samurai sword murder case

A key witness in the murder trial of Hannah Quinn and Blake Davis claimed she was pressured to change her evidence before the case in the NSW Supreme Court.

A key witness in a murder trial was pulled from giving evidence after claiming police “pressured” her to change her statement.

The woman’s serious mental health issues – which she partly attributed to her dealings with the prosecution and being made to redo her statement – only came to light when her mother took the extraordinary step of writing to the trial judge.

This can now be revealed after Sydney couple Blake Davis, 31, and Hannah Quinn, 26, were last week acquitted of murder over the samurai sword killing of a home intruder in 2018.

Davis, who claimed he acted to save Quinn, was convicted on December 22 of manslaughter and Quinn of being an accessory after the fact.

Jett McKee stormed into the couple’s home at Forest Lodge on August 10, 2018, armed with a gun and knuckleduster and demanded money.

Blake Davis and Hannah Quinn were acquitted of murder over the samurai sword killing of a home intruder. Picture: Matrix

Davis claimed he grabbed an ornamental samurai sword to defend his girlfriend, Quinn. Davis hit McKee, who was high on ice, over the head with the sword.

Quinn was originally on trial for murder. Essentially, it was alleged, Quinn knew of or agreed to Davis using the samurai sword against McKee.

But that all fell apart after an extraordinary turn of events involving the Crown’s key witness.

The witness, a woman who lived in a unit block across the road from the crime scene, originally told police she saw Davis ejected or pushed out his front door and land against a fence.

Blake Davis was convicted of manslaughter and Hannah Quinn of being an accessory after the fact. Picture: Christian Gilles

Eighteen months later, the court heard, she dramatically changed her statement. Following a meeting with the DPP in May 2019, the woman claimed she saw Davis and Quinn come out of the granny flat together and chase after McKee. She claimed she saw Davis hit McKee with a large pole.

The crown wanted to rely on that version – the third the witness had provided. But the woman, who had pre-existing mental health issues that she claimed were only exacerbated by this case, was fearful of giving evidence.

In medical records obtained during the trial and discussed in the absence of the jury, she told her psychologist she had been pressured into changing her statement to suit the police. She claimed she felt “suffocated and anxious” during 11 hours at the station.

Hannah Quinn during her interview with police. Picture: Supplied

Davis’s defence barrister Margaret Cunneen SC told the court that the crown had known for two months the witness had trouble recalling the incident.

“But rather than the defence having been told those things, she was made front and centre, in effect, of the crown’s opening address,” she said during legal argument.

Justice Natalie Adams told the court: “But for the witness’s mother writing to me and to the court, none of the defence would have known this quite important aspect.”

She said she was not suggesting the DPP did anything wrong in the conference but was referring to how a person with a mental illness responded to it.

Quinn’s solicitor Lauren MacDougall said her legal team made two applications to have the murder charge against her client no billed but the crown rejected both.

“Not withstanding the obvious deficiency in the case of murder against Hannah,” she told The Sunday Telegraph.

The DPP was contacted for comment.

The defence wanted to call the witness, without the jury in the courtroom, and ask her exactly what happened during her meeting with Crown prosecutor Chris Taylor.

Faced with being called as a witness himself, Mr Taylor decided not to call the witness at all.

Justice Adams then directed the jury to find Quinn not guilty of murder. The pair will be sentenced in February.