Accused killer 'hated' Kiwi nurse

Michelle Beets. Photo / Supplied

SYDNEY - Accused killer Walter Ciaran Marsh hated New Zealand-born nurse Michelle Beets, thought she was a bully and told his wife "one day she will be gone", a Sydney court was told today.

In her matter-of-fact evidence today, the woman said her husband recounted how he tried to silence Ms Beets' screams by covering her mouth with his hand before cutting her throat.

Ms Beets, 55, a nurse manager at Royal North Shore Hospital, was found murdered on the doorstep of her Chatswood home on Sydney's north shore on April 27 this year.

Marsh has been charged with the murder and at Sydney's Downing Centre Local Court a committal hearing took evidence from the key prosecution witness, his wife.

The woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, told the court she married Marsh in Australia in October 2008 after the couple met in Vietnam.

Marsh, 49, from the United States, was in Australia on a visa, sponsored by Royal North Shore Hospital, where he worked as a nurse. The woman said Marsh began complaining about Ms Beets after working at the hospital for only a short time.

He referred to her as "this woman" or "that bitch".

"He hate Michelle (sic), that Michelle had too much power," the woman said of her husband's complaints about Ms Beets.

"... and he hate anyone who bully other people because he used to get bullied when he was little because of his accent."

On one occasion when complaining about work, "he said that one day she will be gone", the woman said.

By September 2009 Marsh had looked up Ms Beets' home address in a phone book, she said.

"He told me that for anyone that he doesn't like or he hates, that's the way he would do it," she told the court.

"He would get their information and address and contact details just in case he need to have a real talk to them."

She said Marsh told her that on at least five occasions he went to Ms Beets' address to "check the house, the neighbourhood, checking whether there were people around".

Marsh's contract at the hospital ended after 12 months, jeopardising the couple's future in Australia, and his efforts to find work were hampered, in his opinion, by poor phone references supplied by Ms Beets, his wife said.

When she met Marsh on April 27, she said, he told her "it was done".

"I asked him, `What do you mean?'...then he told me that she would be gone forever, that the bitch is dead," the woman told the court.

Marsh later allegedly told his wife that he was waiting for Ms Beets as she arrived home, after cutting the power to her house.

"He told me that he held her and she kept screaming and he pulled her down on the floor and he put one of his hands over her mouth and he asked her that if you stopped screaming he would move his hand," his wife said.

"And he told me that she said, `I'm just afraid you're going to hurt me' and that's when he cut her throat."

She said Marsh later discarded the clothes he wore on the night and poured himself a glass of Galliano. Marsh, with his head shaved and a large scar clearly visible along the right side of his skull, asked to leave the court midway through his wife's evidence, telling his legal team he didn't want to hear what was said.

Magistrate Julie Huber allowed the request.

The hearing is continuing.

- AAP