NSW: Cab driver adamant he drove hairdresser to murder site

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NSW: Cab driver adamant he drove hairdresser to murder site

By Kylie Williams

SYDNEY, Aug 6 AAP - Although police say he is wrong, a cab driver today insisted ata coronial inquiry that he drove a Sydney hairdresser to the site of her murder.

The officer in charge of the investigation into the 1996 murder of Paula Brown, DetectiveSergeant Michael Fitzgerald, earlier told Glebe Coroners Court that taxi driver KerstenHeine was mistaken about the identity of his passenger.

Det Sgt Fitzgerald said Mr Heine had driven another woman to the same area at PortBotany in Sydney near where Miss Brown's body was found, about a week before the May 4murder.

Miss Brown's body was found eight days after the murder on May 12.

Det Sgt Fitzgerald said Mr Heine's passenger was visiting her fiance who was a sailoron board one of the ships docking at Port Botany on April 27 or 28, 1996.

"She does bare some similarity to Miss Brown," he said.

The court was told yesterday Miss Brown was last seen in the early hours of the morningon Saturday, May 4, 1996.

She had earlier been out to dinner at the Rocks and drinking at the Burdekin Hotelin Sydney's Oxford Street.

Mr Heine said today he could not remember the date he drove the woman he believed tobe Miss Brown to the Botany Bay site.

"I'm not able to say what shift, whether it was a Friday or Saturday night," he said.

"I have no recollection of any dates or weekdays."

Det Sgt Fitzgerald said other witnesses described Miss Brown as so drunk she was incoherentbut Mr Heine described his passenger as only slightly tipsy.

"The other reason I didn't believe it was the deceased was her sobriety," Det Sgt Fitzgeraldsaid.

"Contrary to all the other witnesses, who said she was so intoxicated she didn't speakcoherently, he said she was only slightly tipsy."

He also said Mr Heine did not mention Miss Brown's zebra skin skirt.

"He did not see the skirt," Det Sgt Fitzgerald said.

But today Mr Heine was adamant it was Paula Brown in his cab and he remembered thezebra print skirt because the lines did not match.

"I remember distinctly the line pattern," he said.

"I find for anyone fashion conscious it is a completely unacceptable and not elegantway to dress."

Today was the first time Mr Heine had ever mentioned the lines not matching on theskirt and he had obtained information about Miss Brown's clothing from newspaper articles,counsel assisting the coroner, Phillip Boulten said.

"I am quite insistent that I remember this breach of the notion of the harmony of elegance,"

Mr Heine said.

Mr Heine continually referred to the passenger as "beautiful, like a model".

"She was well built and she was sexy," he said.

The inquiry continues.

AAP klw/arb/jnb/sb

KEYWORD: BROWN