Sydney nurses Lorraine Wilson, left, and Wendy Evans before they were killed near Toowoomba in 1974. Source: News Limited
A WITNESS has come forward at the eleventh hour to shed new light on the brutal unsolved murders of two Sydney nurses in the 1970s.
The 59-year-old man went to police six weeks ago to tell them of a confession by a former friend who was present when Wendy Evans and Lorraine Wilson were killed in the 1970s.
The young women went missing while hitchhiking in Queensland in 1972 and their bodies were found in bushland two years later.
Desmond Edmondstone told the Brisbane Magistrates Court he'd heard the confession 35 years ago, but had been too frightened to come forward, out of fear of retribution.
He said his former friend Larry Charles had told him he'd witnessed the nurses being raped repeatedly and bashed with sticks while tied to a tree in bushland at Murphys Creek, near the southern Queensland city of Toowoomba.
The girls had been at a party with a group of men in bush at Murphys Creek and had consensual sex with himself and two others, Charles had said.
Things turned sour when the girls refused to have sex with a forth man named Jimmy.
''Boogie (suspect Wayne ''Boogie'' Hilton) walked up to one of them and just jobbed (punched) her and he said 'there you are Jimmy, you can have your turn now','' Mr Edmondstone told the crowded court.
The other woman fled screaming into the bush, but was tracked down by the men an hour later and given ''a hiding'' by Boogie.
''They started raping and bashing (the women) for hours on end,'' Mr Edmondstone said.
''He (Charles) said he don't drink beer, but he had to drink rum to make himself pass out because he couldn't stand it anymore.''
Charles had made the confession through tears at a Rockhampton caravan park in 1978, Mr Edmondstone said.
Key suspects Allan Neil ''Ungie'' Laurie, Allan John ''Shorty'' Laurie, Donny Laurie, Jimmy O'Neill and Desmond Hilton had also been present, he told the court.
The next morning Donnie and Boogie bashed the bound women with large sticks until they stopped moving and left them for dead in the bush.
The group made a blood pact to never speak of what happened.
Charles later shot himself out of guilt, Mr Edmondstone said.
He told the court that hearing the confession had ''destroyed'' him, but he didn't go to police because he was was afraid for his life.
He decided to come forward 35 years later to ease his conscience and because he suffered panic attacks.
''I still am (terrified) but it's either I tell now and get rid of the panic attacks or go on living a lie,'' he said.
Surviving suspects Ungie Laurie, Jimmy O'Neill and Desmond Hilton denied any involvement in the nurses' deaths during earlier hearings in Toowoomba in April.
Boogie Hilton and Donny Laurie are dead.
Mr Edmondstone was the inquest's final witness, with lawyers' final submissions to be heard on Thursday.
Coroner Michael Barnes is expected to deliver his findings next week.
AAP
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