The widow of a wealthy bookmaker murdered in his Sydney garage denied carrying out the crime but said he told her his previous wife wanted to kill him, a jury has been told.
Terry John Gordon Hickson, 60, has pleaded not guilty to murdering Charles Skarratt, 72, who was attacked in the garage of his Woolwich home late on December 21 or early on December 22, 1989.
The bookie, who had been robbed of about $25,000, was found gagged, bound and dead on the garage floor after returning home from his usual Thursday evening work at the Dapto greyhound races.
The Crown alleges Hickson told his girlfriend he stabbed Mr Skarratt during a botched robbery and says his DNA profile matches that taken from blood swabs from the bookie's car boot and his sock.
His barrister has told the jury the bookie's widow, Monika Karpel, had initially been a police suspect after her husband's will was changed in her favour and after a number of monetary transactions.
In the NSW Supreme Court on Thursday, prosecutor Craig Everson read out Ms Karpel's police statement, her record of interview and her evidence given at the inquest.
Ms Karpel, now 78 and living in her native Germany, married Mr Skarratt in 1988 after meeting him on a cruise.
She told police her husband told her his first wife was a born hater, was "so eaten up with bitterness", always had to have someone to hate and would one day end up killing him.
Ms Karpel denied a police suggestion she had told an acquaintance: "I will inherit $1 million or go to jail."
"I didn't kill my husband and I don't know anything about it or who did it," she said.
Her husband had told her he would never struggle during a robbery and would hand over the money.
He'd also told her if something happened to him "I should immediately pack my bags and leave the country".
Her husband had no enemies whatsoever, but she thought the crime was made to look like a robbery when it was premeditated murder.
"He had inside information in the racing business and found out someone was crooked," she said.
The trial continues before Justice David Davies.
Australian Associated Press
