A NSW Central Coast man allegedly murdered his lover in 2012 after she told people she was pregnant to him and contacted his then-partner, a judge has been told.
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James Scott Church, 48, was charged in 2018 with murdering Leisl Smith, 23, who disappeared in August 2012. Her body has never been found.
Ms Smith's car was found abandoned at Tuggerah railway station more than a month after she vanished from her nearby Wallarah home.
During Church's bail application in the NSW Supreme Court on Wednesday, lawyer Manny Conditsis said his client was "clearly a suspect from day one", but he argued there were alternative scenarios.
Ms Smith could still be alive but doesn't want to be found, he said. Or she may have been murdered by her violent boyfriend who has since died but who told people he killed her.
Thirdly, she could have died at the hands of unknown persons, possibly related to money being owed to bikies.
Church told police he'd received a call from Ms Smith on August 19, 2012, asking him to pick her up from Tuggerah station and he assumed her car had broken down.
He said he'd dropped her off in Wyong outside a bakery - a site which Mr Conditsis said was close to where her violent boyfriend had lived.
In opposing bail, Charisse Hodgeman, for the Crown, submitted that Ms Smith had been "causing problems" for Church both in terms of their personal, and his professional, relationships for some period leading up to her disappearance.
"She was communicating with his current partner, telling various people she was pregnant to the accused, telling people she had made claims to various industrial bodies in relation to his profession," she said.
Ms Hodgeman said the Crown had concerns that Church would contact witnesses if granted bail.
Church - giving evidence via video link - said he'd worked as a farrier but went on to run a livestock farm business.
"I certainly don't intend to contact anyone," he said, adding that being on remand since October 2018 was his first time in prison and was extremely difficult.
He said he made a mistake when he originally gave police an alibi for the time when Ms Smith went missing.
He'd said he was staying with friends at their property but when police checked the man's bank and other records they discovered the friend was away at the time.
Justice Elizabeth Fullerton expects to hand down her decision regarding bail within the next few weeks.
Australian Associated Press
