AAP General News (Australia)
02-12-1999
QLD: Man murdered woman after nightclub rejection: court told
By Suzanne Klotz
BRISBANE, Feb 12 AAP - A man last seen leaving a nightclub with a childcare worker had
probably drowned her after she rejected his sexual advances, Brisbane Supreme Court was today
today.
Paul Charles Clark, 26, a labourer, of Lade Street, Enoggera, on Brisbane's northside, has
pleaded not guilty to murdering Jenny Black, 32, of Coorparoo, in Brisbane's inner south.
Ms Black, a pre-school teacher at the Salvation Army Childcare Centre, Carina, in
Brisbane's eastern suburbs, was last seen on a City Rowers nightclub security video leaving
the CBD nightspot with Clark about 3am AEST on January 6, 1997.
Her naked body, weighted down with a 26kg piece of wood was found in the Brisbane River
outside Waterfront Place, also in the CBD, two days later.
Ms Black's jeans, top, shoes, necklace and wallet were found in mangroves not far from
where her body was discovered.
Prosecutor David Meredith, in his opening address, said Clark told police he had asked a
woman from City Rowers for sex and she had said no, and that a mate of Clark's would testify
he was always complaining about not being able to get a girlfriend.
"You might think this is evidence of a motive, that he was disappointed at getting knocked
back, and whatever happens he attacks Jenny Black, he gets scratches on his face and she
drowns before he ties wood to her body to weight it down," he told the jury
Mr Meredith said there were no injuries on the body which could have caused her death and
it was believed she had drowned.
He said there was a large amount of an anti-convulsive drug used by epileptics in her
blood, even though she was not an epileptic, and this may have had the effect of making her
less able to resist an attack.
Mr Meredith said Clark had lied during a police interview, saying he had gone home in the
early hours of Monday morning, when he only got there late in the afternoon.
Taxi drivers would give evidence that a wet and muddy man had caught a cab from the
Waterfront Place area to a street neighbouring the one Clark lived in about 5.30pm on Jan 6.
Mr Meredith said police took a pair of mud-caked boot from Clark's unit, which
palaeontology experts identified as carrying spores consistent with those found in the
riverbank area where Ms Black is believed to have met her death.
He said police pulled the shirt Clark was wearing that night out of his washing machine and
found it had sand in the pocket.
"He had mud on his shoes and sand in his pocket consistent with coming from there (the
muddy river area)," Mr Meredith said.
Mr Meredith said Clark also lied about getting scratches on his face from chicken wire at
work, when he actually didn't go into work at all on Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday.
"You'll find he told these lies because he felt the truth would implicate him in the
offence to police," Mr Meredith said.
The trial is continuing before Justice William Lee.
AAP smk/it
KEYWORD: CLARK
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