MURDERER Kim Leanne Snibson was the face of evil and a master manipulator the NSW Supreme Court in Wollongong heard yesterday.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Closing submissions to the jury began in the trial of Andrew Wayne Flentjar, who was charged with kidnapping and murdering Nowra Hill couple Kathryn McKay, 44, and Greg Hosa, 56, after their smouldering bodies were discovered in barrels in the Tomerong State Forest on January 29, 2006.
Snibson, 37, of Nowra Hill, pleaded guilty to kidnapping and killing the couple on May 28 and Stacey Lea-Caton, 29, of Nowra Hill, is serving a 22-year sentence for assisting in the murders.
Flentjar, 33, of Nowra East, pleaded guilty to kidnapping and tying up the couple, but has maintained he was not at Snibson’s house when the killings occurred.
Flentjar’s barrister John Stratton SC, said the picture of Snibson which emerged during the trial was that of an evil manipulator.
“You have seen the face of evil, and it is Kim Snibson,” he said.
“She’s a master of manipulating others and getting them to do her work.”
Mr Stratton said Snibson recruited Flentjar and Lea-Caton to help her by lying to them, telling them different stories that would “push their buttons”.
“You may think Andrew Flentjar was recruited because Kim Snibson believed him to be gullible,” he said.
Snibson told Flentjar that Mr Hosa and Ms McKay had filmed themselves molesting a child, however there was no evidence that there was any truth to Snibson’s claim.
“[Sibson] had the cunning to know what sort of man Andrew Flentjar was,” Mr Stratton said.
“For whatever may be his faults, he emerges as a family man, she realised what would appeal to Andrew Flentjar, what would push his buttons.”
He said she chose Flentjar and Lea-Caton because they did not know each other.
“Another part of Kim Snibson’s plan was to leave some false clues [such as] the [barrel] lids she left at Andrew Flentjar’s house,” he said.
Mr Stratton said the only person who could place Flentjar at the house when the killings occurred was Lea-Caton.
“Kim Snibson was to be in and out of Nowra barely leaving a trace of her presence,” he said.
In his closing submissions, Crown prosecutor Paul Leask went through a detailed time line with the jury which included evidence from other witnesses who placed Flentjar at the site of the killings about the time they occurred.
He said he was not arguing that Flentjar carried out the physical murder of the couple himself, but assisted.
“The Crown says Andrew Flentjar aided and abetted,” he said.
“When those two people lost their lives, Andrew Flentjar was there, present and ready to assist if need be.”
Mr Leask said Flentjar assisted in eliminating evidence, then tried to appear to be assisting police to deflect suspicion from his involvement in the crime.
When talking to police, Flentjar was preoccupied with what he was doing between 8pm and 9pm, Mr Leask said.
“Why was he so occupied with creating an alibi by 9pm?” he asked.
Mr Leask said the evidence had shown that was about the time the murders took place and the bodies were transported to the Tomerong State Forest in barrels.
“He understood the importance of those times,” he said.
Mr Leask said one of the barrels could have weighed up to 133kg once it contained a body and some chaff, which would have required a third person to lift it in to and out of the car.
Flentjar assisted in destroying evidence and listening device evidence, which was played in court, showed Flentjar creating a false alibi.
“This wasn’t a case of ‘None of my business’ and ‘I don’t want to know’,” Mr Leask said.
“He was involved and the strongest inference of his involvement is drawn from the energy he exercised to eliminate any evidence of his involvement in the investigation of those murders.”
The trial continues today before Justice Terrence Buddin.