The son of an auto wrecker bashed to death in his Sydney workshop told police his father and an employee had heated arguments about religion.
"I don't know if they hated each other because of these beliefs but I could sense there was always tension between them," Edward Dunstan told police in 2020.
He denied making up the disputes, 25 years after the bashing, to help support the police murder case against the employee Kubilay Kilincer, known as Tom.
The 60-year-old has pleaded not guilty to murdering Hasan Dastan, the owner of Esy Auto Dismantlers in Blacktown, on the morning of Monday December 11, 1995.
Mr Dastan was found dead in a pool of blood lying partially under a car.
A metal pipe was shoved six centimetres into his mouth and his severe head injuries were consistent with an attack using a bloodied sledgehammer that lay nearby.
Mr Dunstan, previously known as Ercan or Eddie Dastan, was cross-examined by Kilincer's barrister Ertunc Ozen SC at the NSW Supreme Court jury trial on Thursday.
Asked if he agreed he had never seen Kilincer exhibit any violence or argue with his father, Mr Dunstan replied: ""I don't remember one way or the other".
He repeatedly said he couldn't recall events that happened so long ago but accepted he said certain things to police in a number of statements and in an interview.
Mr Ozen referred him to his evidence at the 2000 inquest into Mr Dastan's death, when he testified that he had never seen his father arguing with Kilincer.
But in his 2020 statement he told police he saw the pair have two or three heated arguments about religion.
He agreed this was the first time he had mentioned any issues between the pair, further agreeing this was 25 years after the death and very shortly after Kilincer had been arrested.
Before he made the 2020 statement, he thought police had told him Kilincer had been recorded admitting the crime and been told what he said were his reasons for the killing.
He denied Mr Ozen's suggestion he made up the religion disputes because he knew of the arrest and wanted to bring some support to the case.
"I would not do anything like that," he said.
Mr Ozen referred Mr Dunstan to statements he made to police in 1995, 1996 and 1997 and his inquest evidence when he didn't mention the "heated arguments over religion".
"I was not thinking clearly," he replied, also saying: "Maybe because I was not asked".
The trial continues before Justice Helen Wilson.
