A FORMER neighbour of Mackay woman Shandee Blackburn has told a court how he heard a “coughing and gagging” sound coming from outside before he saw her crawling toward him, clutching her stomach.
Giving evidence yesterday at the Supreme Court trial of John Peros, who is accused of murdering the 23-year-old, Ringo Tapim said he saw from his balcony Ms Blackburn collapse.
He told the court he had been watching a movie about midnight on February 8, 2013, when he heard “coughing, gagging” from outside the unit.
“You hear a lot of stuff on the street, but after the second cough I got up,” he said.
He told the court he saw a woman in the darkness hunched over and clutching her stomach.
“That’s when I knew something was wrong. At first I though she had been punched in the stomach or something,” Mr Tapim, who called 000, said.
“I called to her. I got as close to her as I could ... it was a bit freaky then, because she was crawling,” he said. “She was crawling up on to the gutter.”
Mr Tapim said he told the paramedic “there was a lot of blood coming from under her”.
Peros has pleaded not guilty to murder.
Defence barrister Craig Eberhardt questioned Mr Tapim about the type of people and activity commonly seen on the street and specifically, about a large white handbag that Ms Blackburn had been seen with that night.
“You see a lot of crazy stuff on that corner,” Mr Tapim said.
Earlier in the day, another witness, Ms Blackburn’s boyfriend at the time Arron Macklin, had told the court he had taken her to work on February 8 about 5pm on the back of his motorcycle.
He said that she went to work with a large white handbag.
“She would hold the two straps over one shoulder,” Mr Macklin told the court.
Mr Eberhardt asked Mr Tapim if he saw a white bag.
“I remember as she was crossing the road and fell over, she just had a phone,” Mr Tapim said.
The trial continues.
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