Coen man Brenton Rosin claimed to have sighted woman who looked like missing Kowanyama mum Allison Neridine Bernard, court hears

A man who saw an indigenous woman in her 20s who looked like missing mum Allison Neridine after she had disappeared took a month to make a formal statement to police because he was “a bit busy”.

A MAN who saw an indigenous woman in her 20s who looked like missing mum Allison Neridine Bernard at his parents’ shop in Coen in November 2014 has told an inquest the month-long delay between mentioning it to a police officer in town and making a formal statement was because he was “a bit busy”.

Brenton Rosin, giving evidence via video connection from Weipa, was the first witness to be called as the coronial inquest into Ms Bernard’s February 2013 disappearance resumed on Tuesday.

Giving evidence in the Cairns Coroner’s Court, Mr Rosin said he was working at his parents’ shop, Armbrust and Co in Coen on November 27, 2014, when he saw an indigenous woman in her 20s with a white male who he thought looked like Ms Bernard.

When asked what stood out about the pair by counsel assisting the coroner Molly Mahlouzarides, Mr Rosin said it was “just the way they were acting”.

An inquest into the disappearance of Kowanyama mum Allison Bernard is under way in the Cairns Coroners Court.

“I’d seen the missing persons poster in the shop that was in the post office and she just looked like the lady in the photo being Allison, and yeah it didn’t click until I’d actually Googled a photo of her because I couldn’t find the missing persons poster,” Mr Rosin told the court.

He said he googled the photo after they left the shop, and decided it “looked like a skinnier version of the girl in the poster”.

Mr Rosin said he got down time, date, and the rego number of the car the pair was in, but where he wrote it he couldn’t remember.

It was over drinks at the Exchange Hotel in Coen that Mr Rosin said he told his “mate” Thomas Byrnes about what he had seen, and Mr Byrnes urged him to contact police, the court heard.

The court previously heard Mr Byrnes was the last person to see Ms Bernard alive at the Archer River Quarry in February 2013.

Thomas Byrnes leaves the Cairns courthouse precinct after day three of an inquest into the disappearance of Kowanyama mother Allison Neridine Bernard in December 2021. Mr Byrnes was the last person to see Ms Bernard alive when she disappeared from the Archer River Quarry in February 2013.

No trace of her has ever been found and no one has been charged over her disappearance.

Several days later, Mr Rosin told the court he ran into Coen Police Station Sergeant Matthew Malone, and mentioned the sighting of the woman to him.

Mr Rosin accepted that Sgt Malone had asked him to come down to the station and make a formal police statement, which he did on December 31, 2014 – more than a month after the sighting.

Explaining in his statement the delay between the sighting and the making of his statement, Mr Rosin wrote: “I was a bit busy and didn’t make it down to make a statement”.

The court also heard there had been an altercation between Mr Rosin, Thomas Byrnes, and a woman Janene Mackay around the same time he gave his statement to police.

On Mr Rosin’s account of the altercation, Ms Mackay had called Mr Byrnes a murderer and Mr Rosin and Mr Byrnes had told her to “f*** off”.

Mr Rosin said he could not be 100% sure about how that incident came to an end – but he knew the police turned up in the early hours of the morning.

“She went back to her room, Tom walked up and went to the toilet, then the police turned up. He went to bed, I went home. That’s as far as I can remember”.

Mr Rosin said his memory of the circumstances of the argument and other things from around the time of his sighting of the woman and his statement to police was not good because he was a chronic alcoholic at the time.

Originally published as Coen man Brenton Rosin claimed to have sighted woman who looked like missing Kowanyama mum Allison Neridine Bernard, court hears