A widowed nurse was brutally stabbed in her suburban Melbourne home more than three decades ago, with a former colleague accused of being behind the shocking alleged attack.
Former hospital orderly Colin Earl Graham is charged with murder over the death of 25-year-old Ina-Doris Warrick, who was found stabbed to death at her Ringwood home in March 1986.
His trial started on Monday in txjmtzywhe Supreme Court of Victoria after cold case detectives charged Mr Graham in 2019.
The former orderly took her out for pizza at an Italian restaurant after going to her home “unannounced” on the evening of March 21, prosecutor Robyn Harper told the jury.
The pair went out for dinner and shared a bottle of wine, before Mr Graham took her home, where he allegedly followed her inside and stabbed her twice in the back with a sharp implement, the prosecutor said.
“She was stabbed within a short time … being minutes after she arrived home from dinner with the accused,” Ms Harper told jurors.
The young nurse was due to start her first night shift at a private hospital after she took time off following her husband’s death from cancer. Ms Warrick knew the orderly from her time working at Box Hill Hospital.
When she didn’t show up for the shift, the nursing agency who arranged the work tried to contact her repeatedly the following day, but wasn’t able to get a hold of the young widow, the court was told.
A neighbour who found her body reported it to police. She was wearing the same clothes she had worn out, had not changed into her nurse’s uniform and was still wearing heels, Ms Harper said.
The court was also told the victim was having an affair with a married doctor named Greg Stewart, who discovered her body days before the neighbour, but didn’t go to police.
He only told them he found her body two days after he initially spoke to them, according to the prosecutor.
But the jurors were told three separate people claimed Mr Graham spoke of his alleged involvement in the crime, Ms Harper said.
Defence barrister Malcolm Thomas told jurors Mr Graham didn’t follow the nurse into her home, but dropped her off, knowing she’d be going to work and then went home.
“I suspect it’s pretty obvious to you now; the central issue is who killed Ms Ina-Doris Warrick,” he told jurors.
He told the jurors they’d have to consider Dr Stewart’s behaviour after the nurse’s death and his “lies”.
The three separate witnesses only came forward after a show offering a reward was aired and his client disputed the conversations ever happened, Mr Thomas said.
The trial continues.
