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AAP
AAP
National
Margaret Scheikowski

Man denies murdering on-off lover

A man accused of murdering a missing Sydney woman says he left her place with bags of garbage. (AAP)

A man accused of murdering a missing Sydney woman told police he left her place with bags of garbage which she asked him to throw away.

James Hachem also challenged a detective who suggested CCTV stills showed the items on his car back seat to be consistent with a "flesh-tone" colour.

"You believe that she is dead and you are saying I have flesh-tone," he said in the February 2019 interview played to the jury on Thursday.

"I strongly disagree, I know it is garbage.

"It is garbage, I know it is garbage 100 per cent."

The 36-year-old has pleaded not guilty in the NSW Supreme Court to murdering his on-off lover Samah Baker on January 4, 2019.

Relatives reported the 30 year old missing after a friend said she dropped her off at her Parramatta home in the early hours of that day.

In the interview, Hachem said he had gone to the unit and left to go to K-Mart to buy her towels and sheets.

On his return, they were intimate again and parted when it was daylight as they were both tired.

She wanted to get rid of a bed frame and also asked him to throw away some garbage bags for him.

He said he put some garbage in empty bins at his brother's units, some in his bin and the broken bed frame out for a council pick-up.

The detective referred him to CCTV stills of his car which appeared to have something "flesh tone" coloured in the back seat.

"Is it possible a person is in the back?," the detective asked.

Hachem denied this, saying the insinuations were very upsetting.

He was referred to a text he sent to Ms Baker at 7.33 am which included: "Last night was so good, slept like a baby" but that he was up at 7.30 because of a dog barking.

The detective referred him to CCTV stills showing he was driving towards his place at 7.13 am and asked about him sleeping like a baby for that short time.

"I did sleep in the car a bit," Hachem said.

After being shown stills showing his car was in a Westfield shopping centre car park from 9am to 3pm on the 4th, Hachem said he had been to his job centre.

He was then asked about going into Coles, paying cash for facial and other wipes, garbage bags and a pair of heavy duty gloves.

He said he used the wipes to clean himself up after masturbating and the rest were to clean kitchen appliances.

Asked why he bought all those items that day, Haschem said he didn't know but he did have to do chores.

He rejected a suggestion that it looked like he had a need to clean something all of a sudden.

He said he may have later driven to a brothel, saying he sometimes visited one in Liverpool, or one called Tiffany in Canberra which he really liked, or a working girl in Wollongong.

When told his E-tag was used on the M5, returning the next morning Hachem said he regularly went driving, sometimes pulling over and sleeping in his car which was easier than getting to sleep at home.

Stills showed the windows were down, but Hachem said he had no reason to air out the car.

He denied having anything to do with Ms Baker's disappearance or anything to do with her being killed or dying.

The trial continues before Justice Robertson Wright

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