by A court heard that Anne Geeves, who is accused with her husband of murdering Amber Haigh more than twenty years ago, threatened the young mother with her newborn child.
Married couple Robert and Anne Geeves, both 64, are facing one count each of murder for the suspected killing of Haigh, who disappeared without a trace in June 2002. The Geeves have both pleaded not guilty.
Related: Missing teenager Amber Haigh was removed from the equation after her verdict, the court was told
The court heard on Tuesday how Robert Geeves and Haigh would have sex “all the time” – sometimes with Anne Geeves watching – and that the missing teenager looked more dirty and deranged in the period before she was gone.
Haigh’s unsolved disappearance in the Harden area of the Riverina, where she lived at the time, remains an enduring mystery. The NSW government has offered $1m for information leading to a conviction in their case, and presumptive murder.
The prosecution alleged in court that the Geeves used Haigh as a “surrogate mother” because they wanted another child, and, as soon as Haigh’s child – born to Robert Geeves – was born they tried to “take her away of the equation” to be killed.
The court previously heard that Haigh was an intellectually disabled teenager from Sydney who suffered a “dysfunctional upbringing” and moved to the small farming town of Kingsvale, in the Riverina, to live with her great-aunt in the late 1990s. That aunt lived next door to the Geeves’ property at the time, and Haigh later moved in with the Geeves.
A sexual relationship began between Robert Geeves and Haigh, and a son was born to her in January 2002.
Hai disappeared sometime in June 2002. The Geeves say they drove her to Campbelltown train station, from where she was going to visit her sick father, on the evening of June 5, and have not seen or heard from her since ago, the court has heard. They told police that Haigh had left her five-month-old son in their custody.
The Geeves reported Haigh missing two weeks later, on 19 June 2002. In 2011, a coroner ruled that Haigh died of “homicide or misadventure” sometime in 2002. Her body was never found. .
Haigh’s great aunt and sometime guardian, Stella Nealon, gave evidence in the NSW supreme court on Tuesday morning. She told the court that she felt “blamed” when Haigh, aged 14, became pregnant by a cousin who also lived in Nealon’s house.
That pregnancy was terminated.
When Haigh fell pregnant again, this time to Robert Geeves, the court heard she was determined to keep the child.
But Nealon said Anne Geeves wanted to raise Amber’s baby.
She told the court that Anne Geeves treated Haigh “about … talking bad to her”.
Nealon alleged Anne Geeves told Haigh: “If you don’t look after the baby, you’ll lose it, I’ll take it.”
Nealon told the court that Haigh had said she would have sex “all the time”, including in his car and at Geeves’ house, with Anne Geeves sometimes watching him.
Crown prosecutor Paul Kerr asked: “Was Amber [Haigh] tell you that Anne [Geeves] did she see her having sex with robert geeves?
“Yes,” replied Nealon.
She said that Haigh had told her that Anne Geeves could not have another child, and that Anne Geeves wanted Haigh to keep the couple’s child.
Haigh was born to Robert Geeves in January 2002.
In court, Nealon said that Haigh lived mostly alone in an apartment in Young’s town after he was born, and that she appeared unkempt and was losing weight. “She was hungry,” Nealon told the court, so she took Haigh to her house to feed her.
Nealon said she last saw Haigh in May 2002, a month before she disappeared. Haigh, by then, had moved back in to live in the Geeves house, with her newborn baby.
“she [Haigh] said ‘they are standing over me’. I remember noticing that since she was living with the Geeves, she looked dirty and unhealthy. The baby looked quite healthy though.”
Nealon was asked if she thought Haigh would ever give up her child.
“No,” said Niall. “She loved him.”
Crown prosecutor Paul Kerr asked Nealon: “Do you think if Amber was alive, she would have contacted you?”
“My word,” cried Nealon, “my word.”
The court previously heard that the Geeves had one child together – a son almost identical to Haigh – but the couple wanted more, having suffered three miscarriages and a subsequent stillbirth.
The crown case will allege that the Geeves planned to use Haigh as a “surrogate mother” before taking their child from her and “removing her from the equation”.
Related: Amber Haigh’s murder trial was unexpectedly delayed after the accused was too ill to attend court
“The crown’s theory of the case is that the Geeves always intended to take custody and care [the child] from Amber, but they knew that in order to do that Amber would have to be removed from the equation, as the Geeves knew that Amber would not voluntarily relinquish custody [her child] and certainly not theirs.
“When it became clear that choosing the desired outcome would be more difficult than they first thought, the Geeves realized that more fundamental action was needed. So, says the crown, they killed her.”
Lawyers for Robert and Anne Geeves said the case against the couple – now more than two decades old – was highly flawed, claiming that Robert Geeves’ relationship with a “much younger disabled woman intelligence” as the stimulus of “gossip and innuendo”.
“Everything they did was viewed with a cloud of distrust and suspicion,” the court heard.
“Many witnesses came forward with complaints or suspicions particularly against Mr Geeves.”
The single judge trial, before Judge Julia Lonergan, continues in Wagga Wagga.
