Anne Geeves, who along with her husband was accused of murdering teenager Amber Haigh more than 20 years ago, threatened the young mother by taking her newborn baby from her, a court has heard.
Married couple Robert and Anne Geeves, both 64, are each charged with murder over the suspected killing of Haigh, who disappeared without a trace in June 2002. The Geeves have both pleaded not guilty.
Related: Missing teenager Amber Haigh was ‘removed from the equation’ after giving birth, the court was told
The court heard on Tuesday how Robert Geeves and Haigh had sex ‘all the time’ – sometimes watched by Anne Geeves – and that the missing teenager looked increasingly dirty and disheveled in the run-up to her disappearance.
Haigh’s unsolved disappearance is an enduring mystery in the Harden area of the Riverina, where she lived at the time. The NSW government has offered $1 million for information leading to a conviction over her disappearance and suspected murder.
The prosecution has alleged in court that Haigh was used by the Geeves as a ‘surrogate mother’ because they wanted another baby, and once Haigh’s baby was born – fathered by Robert Geeves – they tried to ‘remove her from the equation’ by murder.
The court previously heard Haigh was a mentally disabled Sydney teenager who had suffered a “dysfunctional upbringing” and moved to the Riverina farming hamlet of Kingsvale to live with her great aunt in the late 1990s. That aunt lived next to the Geeves’ then estate, and Haigh later moved in with the Geeves.
A sexual relationship developed between Robert Geeves and Haigh, and in January 2002 she gave birth to a son.
Haigh disappeared sometime in June 2002. The Geeves say they took her to Campbelltown train station on the evening of June 5, where she was due to visit her ailing father, and have not seen or heard from her since, it has been reported. the court heard. They told police Haigh left her five-month-old son in custody.
The Geeves reported that Haigh went missing fourteen days later, on June 19, 2002. In 2011, a coroner ruled that Haigh had died of “murder or misadventure” sometime in 2002. Her body was never found.
Haigh’s great aunt and sometime guardian, Stella Nealon, gave evidence in the NSW Supreme Court on Tuesday morning. She told the court she “felt guilty” when Haigh became pregnant at the age of 14 by a cousin who also lived with Nealon.
That pregnancy was terminated.
When Haigh became pregnant again, this time by Robert Geeves, the court heard she was determined to keep the baby.
But Nealon said Anne Geeves wanted to take Amber’s baby.
She told the court that Anne Geeves treated Haigh “roughly… spoke meanly to her”.
Nealon claimed that Anne Geeves told Haigh: “If you don’t take care of the baby you’ll lose it, I’ll take it.”
Nealon told the court that Haigh had said she and Robert Geeves would have sex “all the time”, including in his car and at the Geeves’ home, occasionally watched by Anne Geeves.
Crown prosecutor Paul Kerr asked: “Did Amber do it [Haigh] just say that Anne [Geeves] did you see her have sex with Robert Geeves?
“Yes,” Nealon replied.
She said Haigh told her that Anne Geeves could not have another baby, and that Anne Geeves wanted Haigh to have a baby that the couple could keep.
Haigh’s baby from Robert Geeves was born in January 2002.
In court, Nealon said Haigh had been living largely alone in a flat in the town of Young after giving birth, looked unkempt and was losing weight. “She was starving,” Nealon told the court, so she took Haigh home to feed her.
Nealon said she last saw Haigh in May 2002, a month before she disappeared. By then, Haigh had moved back in to live in the Geeves’ home with her newborn baby.
“She [Haigh] said ‘they are standing over me’. I remember noticing that she had looked dirty and unhealthy since she lived with the Geeves. The baby… looked pretty healthy though.”
Nealon told the court she had heard rumors from people in the district that Geeves had tied up a young girl on his property, but that she had no first-hand knowledge of the allegation.
“That was the story going around, that he had tied up two girls, schoolchildren. I wouldn’t question that because it’s none of my business.”
And she admitted she had been angry with Robert Geeves for his relationship with Haigh, “for what he had done to my family”.
Nealon was asked if she thought Haigh would ever willingly give up her baby.
“Never,” Nealon said. “She loved him.”
Crown prosecutor Paul Kerr asked Nealon: “Do you think if Amber had been alive she would have contacted you?”
“My word,” Nealon said, “my word.”
The court previously heard that the Geeves had one child together – a son almost the same age as Haigh – but the couple wanted more after subsequently suffering three miscarriages and a stillbirth.
The crown case will allege the Geeves intended to use Haigh as a ‘surrogate mother’.
Related: The murder trial against Amber Haigh was unexpectedly postponed after the suspect became too ill to attend court
‘The crown case theory is that it was always the Geeves’ intention to take custody and care of them [the child] of Amber, but they knew that to do that, Amber had to be removed from the equation, because the Geeves knew that Amber would never voluntarily relinquish custody of Amber. [her child] and certainly not for them.
“When it became clear that choosing the outcome they wanted would be more difficult than they initially thought, the Geeves realized that more fundamental action was needed. So, the Crown alleges, they killed her.”
Lawyers for Robert and Anne Geeves said the case against the couple – now more than 20 years old – was deeply flawed, arguing that “the community’s disgust” over Robert Geeves’ relationship with “a much younger woman with a intellectual disability” led to “gossip and innuendo”. .
“Everything they did was viewed through a shroud of mistrust and suspicion,” the court heard.
“Many witnesses harbored grievances or suspicions, especially against Mr Geeves.”
The judgeless trial, before Judge Julia Lonergan, continues in Wagga Wagga.