Nelson Lai has been charged with the murder of Rekiah O’Donnell, 22, in his Sunshine North home. Mr Lai appeared in Melbourne Magistrates’ Court on Monday for the first day of his committal hearing.
A number of Ms O’Donnell’s friends and family were cross-examined about the couple’s relationship, which ended about a month before she died last October.
Ms O’Donnell’s friend, Bethany Tudor, said she had told her Mr Lai would “lock her in rooms in his house”. ”That could happen from hours to several days,” she said. Mr Lai had also installed a tracking application on Ms O’Donnell’s mobile phone so that he could track where she went, Ms Tudor said.
Stacey Wilson said she noticed a bruise on Ms O’Donnell’s cheek when she met her friend last September. Days later Ms O’Donnell “said it was over with him”.
Kerran Robertson said in her witness statement that she had tried to convince her daughter to take an intervention order out against Mr Lai, but she had refused because she said he was “worth helping”.
Mrs Robertson had twice gone to Mr Lai’s home in Sunshine North to try to bring Ms O’Donnell home. On one of the occasions, she had refused to go with her.
Mr Lai had threatened Ms O’Donnell. The only threat Mrs Robertson remembered was, “If you wake up my mum I’ll kill you.”
She said that earlier in the year “she was very secretive, she didn’t want us to know she was back with (Mr Lai). She was trying to hide the fact … trying to avoid the subject as much as possible.”
Ms O’Donnell’s former housemate, Jenna Ferraro, said Mr Lai went through her friend’s mobile phone and read through her text messages.
Ms Ferraro had met Mr Lai once throughout their relationship, but had overheard a phone conversation between the pair when it was on loudspeaker, which she took to be threatening.
She could not remember what either had said, “only that Rekiah and I were upset after it concluded because it was distressing”.
The couple had smoked the drug ice together on their first date, which Ms O’Donnell was detoxing from when she went to India for a holiday with Ms Ferraro last March.
The committal hearing continues.
