The married lover of slain nurse Ina-Doris Warrick has denied killing her but lied about finding her body because he couldn’t deal with the loss, he told a court.
Former hospital orderly Colin Graham is accused of killing the 25-year-old woman in her Ringwood home after taking her out for dinner on March 1, 1986.
The now 66-year-old man has pleaded not guilty to Ms Warrick’s murder.
During his trial on Wednesday, the nurse’s lover, Dr Gregor Stewart, took to the stand.
He told the court although he was a married man, he and the widowed nurse were “joined at the hip”.
“Two bodies with one soul; that just seems to be how we clicked together,” the anaesthesiologist told the court.
The doctor told the court the last time he saw Ms Warrick alive was on the day prosecutors allege she was murdered.
But he lied to police about finding her body and said he went to see her on March 2 and left a note under her door after she didn’t answer, the doctor explained.
He returned the next day – a Sunday – and pushed open the door but said the “whole situation didn’t feel right”.
That’s when he found Ms Warrick’s body lying on her bed in the dark bedroom.
“She was just staring upwards; she was dead and I had no idea what was going on,” Dr Stewart told the court.
He was left without a “good concept of what to do” and left the house.
“I left the bedroom and went out into the hallway. I can remember and still feel just an incredible distress feeling in my body, in my mind.”
The doctor performed a U-turn and went back into the bedroom before leaving again. He went to work that week and told no one about what he found.
“I didn’t tell anybody, I just … to tell anybody was to admit she was dead and I just couldn’t admit that loss … for some reason it was beyond me,” he said.
“I just carry that level of sorrow and shame for the rest of my life,” he told the court.
Dr Stewart was questioned as a suspect on March 26 but still didn’t tell police about the discovery and wouldn’t until days later.
In court he denied killing the nurse when asked by prosecutor Robyn Harper.
“No, I did not,” he said.
Under questioning from Mr Graham’s lawyer, he told the court he didn’t realise the nurse had been murdered until police told him on the night of March 25.
“I did not know until Tuesday night that it was a murder scene,” Dr Stewart said on the stand.
“This is extraordinary,” defence barrister Malcolm Thomas said.
The doctor denied seeing his lover in a pool of blood, and said he did not see blood on the walls or on her hands.
He also denied he went inside the house on March 22 but left a note under the door.
When questioned about whether he was painting a fake “rosy picture” about their relationship, the anaesthetist said he wasn’t.
“No – we had no issues,” he said.
He also rejected claims he had a key to the woman’s home despite another witness earlier telling the court she believed he did.
“I just never had a key,” Dr Stewart said.
The trial in front of Justice Elizabeth Hollingworth continues on Thursday.
