Mr Porter’s wife
Irma is now in the witness box. She told the court Ray told her the police had been asking him about Frank and whether or not he could drive, she said Ray told them “
Frank can’t drive”.
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The court heard Ms Porter told police “I got the impression Frank was not a very nice person. Ray told me one of his neighbours in Wauchope had told him to stay away from Frank”.
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Ms Porter told the court she found a letter after Ray died, which appeared to have been sent from jail and was signed “from your good friend Frank”. She said the letter asked Ray to pick up his boat and move it “to a lady’s place”. She has since thrown it out.
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She told the court the letter “meant nothing” at the time because she wasn’t interviewed by detectives until earlier this year. She told the court she got the impression
Ray was “scared of Frank”.
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Ms Porter is asked about the conversation with nurse Renee Jenner in Ray’s room. She told the court they told Ray not to talk about “the little boy” because it upset him and that “Ray was only a few days away from death and very confused and muddled and very ill”.
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Ms Porter told the court she believed Ray was telling the truth about what he knew because “he would tell the truth to Tom...if he had something to hide he wouldn’t have hid it from his brother”. She said he knew he didn’t have long to live.
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Ms Porter has been excused. The lawyer representing William’s birth father has applied to
re-call Geoff Owen as a witness at a later date, which has been
approved by the coroner. Owen knew Abbott and repaired decking William’s foster grandmother’s house in late 2014.
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