Maryam Hamka feared boyfriend Toby Loughnane before alleged murder, court hears

Maryam Hamka was allegedly “in fear” of her boyfriend and believed he was lurking around her home days before he allegedly murdered her, a court has heard.

Maryam Hamka was allegedly “in fear” of her on-off boyfriend Toby Loughnane and believed he was lurking around her home in the days before he allegedly murdered her, a court has heard.

The Brunswick woman, 36, described Mr Loughnane to a friend as “some sort of criminal” before she went missing without a trace in April 2021.

Mr Loughnane, 42, is accused of murdering Ms Hamka on April 11, 2021 and enlisting a pool cleaner, Oscar Newman, to clean the crime scene at his Brighton home.

Mr Newman, 27, has been charged with assisting an offender and sat just six seats from Ms Hamka’s family in the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court on Monday.

Ms Hamka was last seen on CCTV leaving a Brunswick supermarket at 5.30pm on April 10.

Ten hours later, her friend Shane Allan was trying to call her between 3am and 4am on the day it’s believed she was killed.

Mr Allan gave evidence that they’d spoken earlier and she “sounded a bit off”.

She’d also sent him a text message that read, “sorry, I blew out”, which he suspected meant she’d taken too much of the drug GHB.

Toby Loughnane is accused of murdering Maryam Hamka in 2021.

“Her speech was slurred, she wasn’t making any sense,” Mr Allan told the court, confirming he’d never seen her in that state.

Mr Allan said Ms Hamka had told him about her boyfriend Mr Loughnane, saying: “Toby is this, that and the other thing”.

Asked by defence barrister Dan Sala what he meant, Mr Allan said: “That he was some sort of criminal”.

On April 7, three days before she went missing, another friend Dale Wickham said Ms Hamka sent him a late-night text message over fears Mr Loughnane might be “in and around” her Buckley St home.

Mr Wickham said he searched the property but didn’t see Mr Loughnane.

“Just because I didn’t see him doesn’t mean he wasn’t there prior,” he said.

Mr Wickham said there was “only one person” who could be responsible for his life-long friend’s disappearance.

“If you’d seen what I’d seen you’d understand why I believe Mr Loughnane is involved,” he said.

Oscar Newman has been charged with assisting an offender. Picture: Jake Nowakowski

Kylie Zammit, who knew Mr Loughnane from a trip to Thailand and Ms Hamka through family, described an “altercation” between the couple during a dinner in Brighton two months before she went missing.

“The reason why I stayed is because Toby was my friend and seeing Maryam go through what she did that night ... she was in fear,” she told the court.

Ms Zammit said the dinner was a result of “random contact” after Mr Loughnane replied to her old messages on his release from jail.

Outside court, advocate and lawyer John Herron said the Hamka family wanted closure and to “lay Maryam to rest”.

“It’s just past a year since Maryam’s disappeared and we have no sign or trace or any update of where she is and that’s the tragic thing for the family,” said Mr Herron, who has suffered his own tragedy after the murder of his daughter Courtney.

The committal, before Magistrate Johanna Metcalf, continues.