Killer Eastern Freeway truckie Mohinder Singh speaks for first time about fatal crash
The truck driver who mowed down four police officers on a Melbourne freeway has made a bombshell claim about a call he made to his boss.
The killer truck driver who mowed down four police officers on a Melbourne freeway has made the bombshell claim that his boss told him to say nothing after the fatal crash.
Simiona Tuteru is facing more than 70 charges including four counts of manslaughter in relation to the fatal crash where senior constables Lynette Taylor, Kevin King and Constables Glen Humphris and Joshua Prestney died on April 22 last year.
Police allege the 50-year-old Connect Logistics boss should never have allowed fatal driver Mohinder Singh to get behind the wheel on the day of the crash.
The truckie, who was jailed for 22 years over the crash, took to the stand in a grey prison tracksuit to give evidence against his former boss at the Melbourne Magistrates Court on Wednesday.
In a previously unseen statement released by the court on Wednesday, Singh told police he spoke to Tuteru on the phone after the fatal crash as he stood in the emergency lane.
“I make a phone call to Simon [Tuteru] from my mobile phone and told him that I killed some police officers,” the statement said.
“He replied with something like ‘Don’t say nothing to no-one’”.
Prosecutor Robyn Harper asked Singh what the Connect Logistics manager said as they stood in a carpark together hours before the fatal crash.
“He put a hand on top of my head and prayed in Jesus name to take the curse away of the witch,” Singh said.
The driver was asked if he told Mr Tuteru anything else during the conversation.
“I am too tired to drive and haven’t slept for a while,” Singh told the court.
But the trucking manager’s lawyer David Hallowes SC asked if it was possible he didn’t actually say anything to Mr Tuteru about being too tired to drive.
“I did tell him,” Singh insisted.
The lawyer also quizzed the killer driver about his statement to police including drug use, memory issues and whether he was trying to “shift the blame” for the crash.
“In the last few years my memory problems have gotten worse,” Singh said.
However he denied that he was trying to shift the blame for the crash and said he couldn’t remember if he told police if the truck had “wobbled”.
“I did slam the brakes right at the last minute I think,” the truckie said.
He told the court he had also been using ice “three or four times a day” every few days in the months before he veered into the officers.
Singh was also questioned about the “witch” he told police officers about following the crash.
At a hearing earlier this year it was revealed the woman was Glenys Nannup, who informed police she had told the truckie she was a “good witch”.
When asked whether he still believed she was a witch, Singh said: “yes”.
The driver said he had seen ghosts for several years before the crash and told a doctor he saw stick figures and parallel universes.
In the statement tendered to the court Singh wrote that he confided to his boss about being cursed and Mr Tuteru walked him to his car.
“Simon [Tuteru] told me that sometimes witches leave behind voodoo dolls or hair or something,” he wrote.
“We were looking for something that wasn’t mine. While we were doing this Simon talked to me about witches and curses and how they worked. I don’t remember the details of what he told me, at the time it made lots of sense to me though.”
Before Singh took to the stand prosecutors told the court they would drop six charges of obtain financial advantage by deception against the Connect Logistics boss.
The four officers were killed after they stopped to pull over Richard Pusey, who was clocked speeding at 149km/h in his black Porsche. He was urinating on the side of the road and avoided being hit.
The hearing will continue in front of magistrate Luisa Bazzani on Thursday.
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