THE Singh murder trial took a twist with witnesses telling they heard a "blood curdling scream" and what appeared to be gun shots in the neigbourhood a day after police allege the siblings were murdered.
Kim Maree Bliss was called for cross examination by barrister Sam Di Carlo, for accused killer Max Sica, about events on the night of Monday April 21 and Tuesday April 22, 2003.
The trial has heard police allege the Singh siblings were murdered late on April 20 or early in the morning on April 21, 2003.
Sica, 42, has pleaded not guilty murdering Neelma Singh, 24, Kunal Singh, 18, and Sidhi Singh, 12, at Bridgeman Downs, in Brisbane's north.
Ms Bliss said in 2003 she was living at Grey Gum Close at Bridgeman Downs which was near where the Singh's home in Grass Tree Close.
She told the court she had been away for the Easter weekend and returned home at about lunchtime on the Monday.
In the afternoon she had a barbecue for some friends and about 7.30 or 8.30 they heard what sounded like two gunshots or two cracks of a whip.
"Did you also hear a blood curdling scream?" Mr Di Carlo asked.
Ms Bliss replied that she had and it seemed to be a female.
She told Mr Di Carlo she had not called police but later spoke with them after an unusual incident while she was walking with a friend.
Ms Bliss said she was walking on a bike path at about 5.30am when she saw a man dressed in work clothes.
The man looked at them and ran off before jumping a fence.
Ms Bliss told Mr Di Carlo she was shown a photo board but had not recognised anyone and had also helped police with a comfit photograph.
Julie Anne Hicks and her then boyfriend Gary Paul Ball went to a barbecue at Ms Bliss and her husband Jeffrey Bliss's home at Grey Gum Close.
Ms Hicks said it had been very quiet and dark and she assumed most people were still away for Easter.
She told Mr Di Carlo she heard what she thought was a whip crack but after talking with the others they decided it was a gunshot.
Ms Hicks said she also recalled hearing a loud scream.
"I have described it as blood curdling. It made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. I thought it was female and it seemed to go on for about 10 seconds," she added.
Ms Hicks told Mr Di Carlo that at the time it had terrified her and she had expected to hear sirens but she didn't.
"We didn't know where it came from ......we had no sense of direction," she said.
Ms Hicks said she could put the time as being dark but before 8.30pm when she had gone inside to watch a television show.
Mr Ball told Mr Di Carlo he went to the Hendra police station the next day because he had concerns about some noises he heard.
He said between 8pm and 8.30pm he heard two to three short sharp shots.
"In between (the shots) I heard a scream......I had no idea where it came from," he said.
Mr Ball told Mr Di Carlo he had never told police he saw someone running from the Singh house.
Phillipa Jade Danrel, a recruitment officer, said she remembered Neelma Singh had applied for a job at travel company Flight Centre.
Neelma attended a trial but the position from that store was withdrawn and she was "put on ice" for another trial with another store.
Ms Danrell said Neelma was finally approved for a job and was to come in for an interview on April 22 but she had no more contact with her.
The trial before Justice John Byrne continues.
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Police only theorize that the Singh children were killed late Sunday night or very early Monday morning, not because they know this for a fact, but because it was the only tine Max Sica was asleep in his bed. Even though his brother and mother told police he was home in bed, to them it is only their word.
Max Sica went to pick up his kids on the Monday morning at around 7am. Police know that the last phone contact between Max Sica and Neelma Singh (from Sica home land line to Singh home land line) was at about 11.10pm on the Easter Sunday night. Persons who were at the Sica house (not family related persons) on that Easter Sunday night saw Max at home before they left.
Police are saying that Max Sica sometime during the Easter Sunday night early into the Easter Monday morning, snuck out of the house without anyone seeing him. That he then went to the Singh house, had some sort of confrontation and decided to brutally torture and murder the Singh siblings. According to police he then attempted to clean up some area downstairs where the murders did not take place for they were all found in a spa bath in an upstairs bathroom. The spa bath was covered with all the bed sheets and Duna`s from the beds. He then had to clean himself up really well for he would have been covered in blood etc. They then had to theorize that he went back to his home, pretended to be getting out of bed and getting ready to go pick up his kids at his ex wife`s house . All this in a few short hours.
These witnesses that have said they heard screaming, shots or whip cracks are already of a concern. There was also another witness in the committal phase of this trial who stated that on the Easter Monday morning he saw a young girl come out the front door of the Singh house, she had taken a small dog inside the house. When he saw footage of the Singh children, he recognized her to be Sidhi Singh. Police had told this witness that he must have been mistaken (for this did not suit them and their beliefs of events) but this witness was adamant about what he saw and stated it at committal.
The man who was seen at around 5.30am on the day the Singh children were discovered dead by Max Sica. Who was this man? Why has he not come forward? Why did he run up a hill and jump a fence when he saw these two women had seen him? Why did the police not ever mention this incident? and lastly, why was the comfit sketch of this man never aired on the media? I would think it would be of great importance trying to find out who this person was and what they were doing there on that particular day and time of day.
There is another witness who at committal stated she heard a bone chilling scream at around midnight or shortly after on Tuesday the 22nd April 2003. She said that it lasted for three to four minutes and that it terrified her. She said it sounded like a young woman. This witness lived close to the Singh residence at the time. Unfortunately the police were not called. I believe the Singh children were being tortured and in the end whoever did this, decided to brutally kill them.
The threats Mr Singh recieved from two men in Fiji on two of his land lines at his home are truly chilling. They told him that they would rape and kill his wife and daughters. This shortly before the Singh children were found dead. Mr Singhs wife was with him in Fiji when the children were killed.
Max Sica was the prime suspect for the police, not a year later, but the very same day he discovered the bodies. He was it and there was no turning back. Max Sica was hounded by not only police, but by media from the very beginning. Even though he was not charged with the crime until the end of December 2008, he was continually in the media headlines since the day he walked into the Singh home and discovered what must have been the most shocking thing he ever witnessed. He has had trial by media from day one and a total assassination of character. The laws against this should really be put in place for i find it extremely prejudice and unjust.
Max Sica fully co operated with police from day one. He gave them everything they asked for without the need of a search warrant or the presence of a lawyer. BIG MISTAKE i have learnt how the justice system works or doesnt work. Believe me, in any similar circumstance, do make sure that YOU DO have a LAWYER present, you would at least know what your rights are and how the law truly operates.
