A woman allegedly murdered by her boyfriend 18 years ago lived a "high risk" lifestyle as a drug user and sex worker, and reported being violently assaulted around the same time and in the same place another sex worker disappeared, the WA Supreme Court has been told.
Chris Blennerhassett, 46, is on trial accused of fatally striking 23-year-old Rebecca Delalande during an argument at a house in the Perth suburb of Armadale in November 2001.
Her body has never been found and the court was told it was disposed of by being burnt in a 44-gallon metal drum.
Ms Delalande's disappearance came to light when police conducted a cold case review of the investigation into another missing woman, 19-year-old Lisa Brown, who vanished from the Northbridge area in November 1998.
The court heard Ms Delalande had provided information to the police at the time of Ms Brown's disappearance.
Officers wanted to speak to her again as part of the review, but she could not be found.
A 'high-risk' lifestyle
Mr Blennerhassett's lawyer, Justine Fisher, described Ms Delalande as living "a high-risk lifestyle" that exposed her to "risks on many fronts", including using and selling drugs and working as a street prostitute.
She said the dangers posed by living such a lifestyle "could not be understated".
Ms Delalande had told officers involved in the Lisa Brown investigation about her own violent sexual assault when she got into a man's car about a week before Ms Brown disappeared.
"There is no evidence that offender was ever brought to justice. Clearly this highlights the risk at play at those times … the risk of girls getting into unknown males' cars," Ms Fisher said.
"The risk was real and palpable."
Ms Fisher also raised the possibility that Ms Delalande was not dead, saying people did disappear or remove themselves from the community "without a trace of foul play".
She said there was no forensic evidence that independently confirmed the death of Ms Delalande, and there was also no forensic evidence linking her client to her disappearance.
Housemate saw limp body, court told
The court heard a former housemate of Mr Blennerhassett's would testify that, after hearing him and Ms Delalande argue at a house in Armadale, he saw Mr Blennerhassett carry her limp body to his car.
The housemate also claimed Mr Blennerhassett later told him he had fatally struck Ms Delalande to the head and had burnt her body in a 44-gallon drum.
But Ms Fisher said the housemate, who she described as a critical witness, had provided "significantly inconsistent" statements to police, and she urged the jury to carefully assess his reliability and truthfulness.
She said other people who were present at the house on the night of the alleged murder had provided "entirely different" versions of events, and not one of them had suggested Mr Blennerhassett was violent towards Ms Delalande.
The court heard Mr Blennerhassett was first contacted by police in 2017 and provided a statement, saying the last time he saw Ms Delalande was when he dropped her off on Beaufort Street, near the Highgate area.
He described her as being "out of it" on drugs and said she got out of his car with two suitcases as he made it clear he did not want any further contact with her.
