A man accused of murdering his girlfriend decades ago pressured his child to tell police he stayed at home on the night she died, a magistrate has heard.
Keith Lees, 73, faced a committal hearing on Wednesday in Maroochydore Magistrates Court on the charge of murdering Meaghan Louise Rose, a 25-year-old disability and aged care nursing assistant.
Ms Rose’s body was found on July 18, 1997 at the base of Point Cartwright Cliffs at Buddina on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast.
Crown prosecutor Sarah Dennis said Ms Rose’s death was initially classified as a suicide.
Magistrate Chris Callaghan heard Lees told police at the time he stayed home overnight while Ms Rose left to see friends after showing signs of depression.
Lees’ child Wren Dawnsong testified she was aged 11 and living with the accused as his biological son along with Ms Rose in 1997.
Defence barrister Simon Lewis asked Ms Dawsong if the first statement she gave to police in 1997 was true and correct.
“No,” Ms Dawnsong said.
Asked what parts were untrue, she said: “I had not included that Keith had left the apartment.”
Mr Lewis asked Ms Dawnsong if Lees had “told you what not to say and you felt pressured when speaking to Maroochydore police”?
“Correct,” she said.
Mr Lewis asked why she continued to say Lees never left home that night in subsequent police statements made when she was an adult.
“I was scared. He put the fear of God into me. I was scared for years,” Ms Dawnsong said.
She agreed she “hated” Lees but was not trying to “blow up his alibi”.
“Are you willing to lie for him to go to prison?” Mr Lewis said.
“I am not lying,” Ms Dawnsong said.
Lees was extradited to Brisbane after being arrested in a rural area northwest of Sydney in 2025.
Want more free local news? Follow Sunshine Coast News on Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram, and sign up for our FREE daily news email.
He had allegedly been on the run from police for about 18 months after Queensland detectives travelled to Victoria in June 2023.
Lee’s vehicle was found abandoned the day after not turning up to an appointment to speak with the detectives, and he was later arrested in Dural in NSW in January last year.
Ms Dennis said Lees staged events suggesting his own death by suicide and commenced living under an assumed name.
Lees was the beneficiary of Ms Rose’s $250,000 life insurance policy with a suicide exemption that expired three weeks before her death, Ms Dennis said.
Mr Callaghan heard Ms Dawnsong had participated in a TV interview and podcast about Ms Rose’s alleged murder but abandoned plans to write a book as she did not want to profit from the death.
Ms Dawnsong agreed she was still “terrified” of Lees.
Ms Dennis asked Ms Dawnsong why she was terrified.
“He was physically violent and emotionally manipulative,” she said.
The committal hearing is due to conclude on Thursday.
