A man accused of three cold-case murders confronted a crown witness in prison and told him “I’ll make you number four”, a court has been told.
Mildura man Steven Leslie Hainsworth, 49, is on trial in the South Australian Supreme Court charged with the murders of Phyllis Harrison, 71, at Elizabeth South in 1998, Beverley Hanley, 64, at Elizabeth North in 2010 and Stephen Newton, 55, at Mt Gambier in 2011.
Witness Dale Kennett said he was a long-standing friend of Newton’s and in the six months before his death, he would visit him around three times a week to smoke and buy cannabis.
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In the last two weeks when he visited Newton’s home, his friend was not there, he told the court.
He agreed that he had visited the Mt Gambier home of Hainsworth’s partner, Bianca, around the time that Newton was missing but before his body had been found.
While there, Hainsworth offered to sell him a banknote, a coin collection and a television, which Kennett said looked “very similar” to a collection and a TV owned by Newton.
Kennett said he was jailed in April 2023 for six months for driving while disqualified and theft of a motor vehicle.
He was sent to Mt Gambier Prison but was transferred to Yatala Labour Prison in Adelaide after he threatened an officer.
On the first day he was at Yatala, another inmate asked him if he was Dale Kennett, “because Steve [Hainsworth] was asking if it was me”, he said.
He said Hainsworth confronted him later that day and said “you’re a f—ing dog because you went crown witness against me at a murder trial”.
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“And I’d forgotten about it … I said ‘what are you talking about’?”
He told Director of Public Prosecutions Martin Hinton KC that Hainsworth spoke to him again the following day.
“I was out in the association area waiting for a phone call. Steve walked past … and said ‘you and your brother are both dogs. I’m going to get you in this unit or another one and I’ll make you number four”.
“Did you understand what he meant by that?” Hinton asked.
“He’s already killed three, that I believe, and I was going to be the fourth,” Kennett said.
Kennett said after he was subsequently assaulted by his cellmate, he told him “if I’ve done something to upset you, I’m sorry, mate”.
“He goes ‘I’m sorry, too’,” he said.
“I said ‘what was it for?’ and he goes … ‘a canteen offer by Steve Hainsworth’.”
The judge-alone trial before Justice Adam Kimber continues.
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