Anthony Stott’s dying moments were captured on camera the morning after he was reportedly abducted and driven over by a semi-trailer.
The video was shown for the jury in Lauren Grainger’s trial at Lismore Local Court on Friday morning. Lauren Grainger had entered a not-guilty plea to the exceptionally aggravated abduction of Mr. Stott on February 10, 2020.
At her boyfriend Mark Frost’s vegetable farm in the Tweed Valley, Ms. Grainger is charged with kidnapping the 43-year-old.
Mr. Stott, a teacher at St. Peter’s Lutheran College in Brisbane, was killed after he was struck by a semi-trailer on the M1 after reportedly being assaulted with a golf club in a shed at the couple’s property near Cudgera Creek while being kept bound to a chair.
Ms. Grainger said NSW Police Mr. Stott entered the house via the back door in the middle of the night, according to the footage, which was recorded at 4 p.m. the following day.
He came up the back stairs, it was dark, and it was early in the morning, she recalled.
“I simply yelled,” he said, “and he ran into the home via the back door brandishing a knife.”
Then I thought, “What the f***? Whoa, what are you doing?
According to Ms. Grainger, who is shown in the video guiding two police officers to a shed through a portion of the property, Mr. Frost began making unsettling remarks to the couple.
She recalled him saying, “I’ve been in the kitchen, I’ve been into the kitchen to take your money.”
The court was informed that the pair operated at neighbourhood markets and often stored cash from the company in their residence.
In the footage, Ms. Grainger can be seen telling investigators that she and Frost “marched” Stott to the shed where they tied him up.
Police at the scene moved quickly to get further details about the encounter.
What occurred between 4:00 AM and 7:00 AM? It’s crucial that you speak the truth, one officer can be heard saying.
You say he just strolled out to the shed and left, which is less than three hours.
Ms. Grainger said that when she first saw Mr. Stott, she made an effort to address the matter head-on.
She replied, “Me being an idiot, I attempted to restrain him.”
“He left this place by walking.”
Once again, one of the policemen made an effort to analyse the allegation.
He arrived to your home, and you foolishly attempted to stop him? He questioned, “You marched him out here?”
Ms. Grainger claimed she had never seen Mr. Stott before and questioned his presence on the premises.
I said, “How did you get here?” How did you get here, and how did you climb up those back steps?” she said.
The pair had been drinking for almost nine hours starting at 6 o’clock on February 9 while watching television, Ms Grainger’s defence attorney David Funch told the court on Friday.
Before going to bed, Ms. Grainger had gone to the bathroom, where she had’seen a guy go through the rear door’, according to him.
She said that she had no clue who this man was and that she seemed to have caught him in the act, according to Mr. Funch.
He was carrying what seemed to be a standard kitchen knife.
She said that he was acting like a zombie by standing still and gazing at her with “crazy eyes.”
According to the accuser, Mr. Funch stated that Mr. Stott “wasn’t wearing any shoes.”
He said that she yelled at Stott, “Who the f*** are you,” or words to that effect.
Mr. Stott ultimately left the property by “walking along the paddock, he didn’t flee,” Ms. Grainger told her attorney.
According to Mr. Funch, “They wanted to put the experience behind them and either go to bed or go to work.”
They could make out the man strolling down the roadway in the distance, but suddenly he vanished from view.
Ms. Grainger said in the video that she felt “very, really horrible” about what she did on the farm.
She remarked on the video, “I feel like I’ve caused this person’s death.”
In exchange for testifying against Grainger, Frost and his accomplice Craig Button secured reduced terms after entering a guilty plea to the abduction.
The case was put on hold on Friday in the afternoon, and it will resume on Monday with testimony from Grainger.