The court said neighbors heard screams in Randwick Park on the night of death
A Randwick resident told police he heard a man at a nearby park yell and say, “You’re killing me,” in the hours before a body was found in the area, but he didn’t seek help because it was riots in the park heard a NSW murder trial before the Supreme Court.
The body of 43-year-old father Raymond Keam was found in Randwick’s Alison Park in the early hours of January 13, 1987. Stanley Bruce Early, 77, has pleaded not guilty to Keam’s murder and is facing trial before a jury.
Raymond Keam was found dead in east Sydney in 1987.
The Crown alleges that Early, then known as Stanley Sutton and nicknamed “Spider,” had a tendency to attack people in the park and use physical violence against people he believed to be homosexual, especially at night, and “did this with other people”.
The jury heard that in the late 1980s Alison Park had a reputation for being a gay club where men met for sex.
Attorney General Ken McKay, SC, read in court on Tuesday a statement made in March 1987 at Randwick Police Station by a now-deceased local resident who lived next door to Early in a block of flats in The Avenue, Randwick, across the street from Alison Park.
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The resident said he was awakened by noises in Alison Park around 1:50 am on January 13, 1987 and went to his window. He said he spoke to the defendants outside their respective homes earlier in the evening.
“It seemed to me that there was a fight going on in the park and I heard a man’s voice yelling, ‘Leave me alone, leave me alone,’ and then he moaned loudly, ‘You’re killing me,'” said the statement said.
“I never heard anything more. I wasn’t too concerned about that because people are always fighting in the park. It’s a normal thing.”
