Gardener’s explosive evidence at Paddy inquest

THE “hot tempered” live-in gardener working for missing Larrimah man Paddy Moriarty’s neighbour, Fran Hodgetts, has agreed under oath that he said that if anybody messed with his garden it would be “the first murder in Larrimah”

Gardener Owen Laurie (brown jacket) leaves the Katherine Local Court after giving evidence. The inquest into the disappearance of Paddy Moriarty from Larrimah continues for a second day at the Katherine Local Court Picture: MICHAEL FRANCHI

THE “hot tempered” live-in gardener working for missing Larrimah man Paddy Moriarty’s neighbour, Fran Hodgetts, has agreed under oath that he said that if anybody messed with his garden it would be “the first murder in Larrimah”.

Owen Laurie, 71, described himself as not being a “social creature”, and is the only one of Larrimah’s residents who had never spoken publicly about Paddy’s disappearance.

A coronial inquest into Paddy’s disappearance, and presumed death, heard on Friday that Mr Laurie said to Ms Hodgetts, that if “any f---ing bastard comes in here and poisons my f---ing garden, that’ll be the first murder in Larrimah”.

Mr Laurie said his comment about committing a murder was a joke.

“That was joking. It was said jokingly. People say things like that,” he said.

“I had no intention of murdering anyone.”

Exhaustive police searches in the dense scrubland around Larrimah, five hours south of Darwin, have found no trace of Paddy or his timid kelpie puppy, Kelly.

The inquest heard Ms Hodgetts had complained to Mr Laurie that Paddy had poisoned the garden surrounding her Devonshire tea house and pie shop.

Coroner Greg Cavanagh said to Mr Laurie: “People have been murdered for less, sir.”

Mr Laurie said he would have told police if he had killed Paddy.

“Had I murdered somebody, as I said in the statement there, I would have told them,” he said. Both Mr Laurie and Ms Hodgetts said Paddy’s disappearance and the speculation about their involvement had taken a toll.

Mr Laurie said: “It most certainly has made me ill, and I have had pains in the chest over it.” Mr Laurie, a retired railwayman, described as “embellishment” Ms Hodgetts’ claim she told him in the days before Paddy’s disappearance, “hang on, don’t do anything stupid, I’m going to Darwin I don’t want to come back and have to bail you out of jail”.

Mr Laurie said he was a tent boxer in his younger years, “just putting on a show” in rural New South Wales, but that he was now unable to even walk far because of his heart condition, a bad ankle, high blood pressure and osteoporosis. He denied downplaying a confrontation with Paddy in the days before his disappearance. “I didn’t have a barney with him, I had words with him,” he said

But said he might have tried to “belt him” had Paddy not walked away.

“I might have tried to but it didn’t happen,” he said.

Mr Laurie further denied telling Ms Hodgetts he would “look after” the conflicts that had divided Larrimah, and, as police swarmed into town in the days before Christmas last year, that he said to Ms Hodgetts: “Oh, I thought they’ve come for me”.

Call records from the only payphone in town – directly outside Ms Hodgetts’ and Mr Laurie’s property – show Mr Laurie made calls at 6.30pm and 6.31pm the day Paddy was last seen alive, riding his red quad bike home from the Pink Panther Pub.

Mr Laurie denied the suggestion – put to him by counsel assisting the coroner, Kelvin Currie – that he saw Paddy ride home and “went to sort things out”.

“I didn’t see Paddy,” Mr Laurie said. “Didn’t happen, didn’t happen.”

Ms Hodgetts, who has lived in Larrimah for 35 years, wiped tears from her eyes as she detailed the emotional toll she and Mr Laurie had been through since Paddy’s disappearance. “I’ve been through hell and back with this. This is killing me and Owen,” she said.

“I was going to do myself in it was that bad. I woke up one morning at 4am, numb from the bottom up.

“I thought no, I’ll wake up and have two Panadeine Fortes and a hot chocolate and go back to sleep and I did and I felt a little bit better.”

She said she loved Mr Laurie as a person.

“When somebody looks after me I treat them well,” she said. “I swear to God that man is as honest as the day is long.”

The inquest heard Ms Hodgetts had made a string of complaints about Paddy to police, dating back as far as 2010, none of which there was any evidence of having been true. They included the alleged theft of a large red umbrella and memorabilia booklets, as well as petty vandalism.

She said a stockpile of cash from the sale of a car and other savings – estimated by other witnesses to be between $27,000 and $30,000 – dwindled to $7000 by the time police found it in a plastic bag in her chest freezer.

“I pay cash for everything,” she said. “I put it away and I don’t have to put my money in the bank if I don’t want to.”

Ms Hodgetts said she was honest and that both her and Mr Laurie knew nothing about what happened to Paddy. “I just want the f---ing thing to be over,” she said. “How do you think I feel? How can I make pies with all this going on?”

Coroner Greg Cavanagh will deliver his findings at a later date.