- by cnn
- 29 Mar 2024
Secret police recordings in which a man claims to have killed Paddy Moriarty with a hammer have been heard at an inquest into the Northern Territory man's disappearance.
Moriarty, 70, and his dog went missing from the town of Larrimah, 500km south of Darwin, on 16 December 2017, with police suspecting foul play.
Laurie, who was 70 at the time Moriarty vanished, had worked as a caretaker and gardener for Fran Hodgetts and lived on her property where she ran a teahouse.
Hodgetts, who appeared at Wednesday's inquest via video from Melbourne, had a long-running feud with the missing man and alleged he had repeatedly poisoned her plants.
She said when she had warned Laurie about the vandalism on her property, he told her: "Iff anyone touches my garden, it will be the first murder in Larrimah."
Police installed recording devices in Laurie's home on 29 December 2017 - less than two weeks after Irish-born Moriarty and his dog disappeared.
In the eight recordings played to the court on Wednesday, a man is heard singing, chatting to a dog, muttering, yodelling and strumming a guitar.
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