A pregnant teenager who was allegedly killed after arranging to meet a man for paid sex had a turbulent relationship with her 38-year-old boyfriend, a court has heard.
Rodney Wayne Williams, 65, has pleaded not guilty to murdering Tiffany Taylor in Waterford West, south of Brisbane, in 2015.
The teenager was reported missing by family after her boyfriend Gregory Hill, who was 38 years old at the time, had last seen her leave the motel room where they lived in July 2015.
Crown prosecutor Caroline Marco alleges Ms Taylor had gone to meet Mr Williams after they met on a dating website.
Mr Williams allegedly would pay Ms Taylor to provide sexual services to him in exchange for money.
Chloe Taylor, the teen’s elder sister, gave evidence on Wednesday before the Brisbane Supreme Court.
She said her sister, who was two years younger, was her “everything”.
“She was like my baby girl, … she was my everything, I looked up to her, I idolised her,” she said.
The court was told Tiffany had been in a relationship with Mr Hill since she was allegedly 12 years old.
Her sister told the court that Tiffany and Mr Hill were “so in love” and, after years of fighting with the pair, her family accepted their relationship.
Ms Taylor told the jury that Mr Hill had come to her home two days after he’d last seen Tiffany because he thought she might have been at the house.
“This wasn’t out of the ordinary for her to go away for a day or two because she had multiple girlfriends,” Ms Taylor said.
“He was so stressed, he had everything they owned in the car.”
Nathan Stocks – Chloe Taylor’s partner – said he didn’t like the relationship between Mr Hill and Tiffany, but could tell their connection was “unbreakable”.
Mr Stocks said when Mr Hill came to his home to ask where Tiffany was, he thought Tiffany was staying with them.
“Greg arrived, pestering us if we knew where she was gone or where she was heading,” Mr Stocks said.
“We obviously didn’t have a clue; this is what we were saying.
“He sort of felt to him that we were lying to him or that we did know where she was.
“You could tell he was worried because you could tell there was a lot of love between them.
“He even walked through the house looking in cupboards.”
Mr Stocks said he’d always tried to discourage Tiffany from having a relationship with Mr Hill.
Mr Williams’ defence barrister, Kim Bryson, told the court there’d been reports during Tiffany’s relationship with Mr Hill where he’d been violent with her.
Ms Bryson asked Mr Stocks whether he’d encouraged Tiffany to leave the older man.
The court heard Mr Stocks had told police in August 2015 Tiffany had “wanted to get her stuff together and wanted to get away from Gregory; she didn’t want to hurt Gregory but she didn’t want him to hurt her family”.
Mr Stocks said he agreed with his original statement and that it was common for her to stop contact with her family but “not from him”.
Another witness, Gregory Dunn, told the court in prerecorded evidence that Tiffany had been trying to get away from Mr Hill in the later stages of their relationship.
Mr Dunn said Tiffany had told him on July 8, 2015 she was more than three months pregnant with Mr Hill’s child.
“She was happy in a way she was having a child,” he said.
Ms Taylor said she had never seen Mr Hill be violent, but had noticed bruising and a burn on her face, which Tiffany had always denied was caused by her boyfriend.
Ms Taylor said her family, including her mother Leanne Dillon, had gotten into “physical” fights with Mr Hill at the beginning of her sister’s relationship with the older man.
“It was just a typical cat and mouse game,” she said.
“I just wanted to have a relationship with her.
“He was fighting for her, we just let them win. When it’s love, and I’m not going to have her and he’s going to have her, I’d rather us just be together.
“I just accepted it.”
Ms Dillon said she also didn’t approve of the relationship between her daughter and Mr Hill but eventually learnt to deal with it.
“They loved each other so much,” she said.
“He didn’t want to lose her and she didn’t want to lose him, so you had to accept it.”
The court was told Tiffany was known to carry cash with her after she told her family she’d inherited $30,000 from a friend.
The Crown alleges Mr Williams did meet up with Tiffany on the last day she was seen after agreeing to pay her $400 for several minutes of sex.
The jury heard evidence police had also collected the Toll data from Mr Williams’ car movements, which saw him travel westbound on Paradise Rd Interchange on July 12, 2015.
Mr Williams about 30 minutes later was allegedly again captured by Toll data travelling westbound on the Ipswich Motorway at Heathwood.
A Child Protection officer told the court on Wednesday that police had later searched two locations at which an informant had heard a woman screaming “sometime at the end of July” and a “smell emanating from the area of a dried up dam”.
The court heard police also searched part of the Wivenhoe Dam.
Police were unable to find any evidence.
The teenager’s remains have never been found.
The trial, before Justice Peter Applegarth, continues on Thursday.