THE ex-partner of murdered mother Carly McBride has refuted claims the pair argued immediately before she suddenly left his home at Muswellbrook and disappeared. Andrew Easton, the father of one of Ms McBride's children, gave evidence for a second day on Thursday during Sayle Kenneth Newson's murder trial in Newcastle Supreme Court.
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Ms McBride disappeared after leaving Mr Easton's Calgaroo Avenue, Muswellbrook home on the afternoon of September 30, 2014.
Mr Easton gave evidence on Wednesday that Ms McBride came to visit their daughter, but decided to leave "out of the blue" before the young girl came home from day care.
Mr Easton claimed Ms McBride had said she was headed to the nearby McDonald's to be picked up.
But Ms McBride never made it and it is the prosecution case that Mr Newson, jealous and on an ice binge, intercepted Ms McBride and killed her by inflicting a number of blows to her head and back. Her body was found in bushland about 25 metres from Bunnan Road at Owens Gap on August 7, 2016.
Under cross-examination from Mr Newson's barrister, Philip Massey, Mr Easton denied he and Ms McBride argued at his home on the afternoon she disappeared.
"It's not the case that you told her you had a girlfriend and she got angry and left," Mr Massey asked Mr Easton.
"It's not the case, no," Mr Easton replied.
"Ms McBride had come some distance to see her daughter, hadn't she?" Mr Massey asked. "And just all of a sudden between 1.45pm and 2pm, just out of the blue she said 'I'm going'."
Again, under questioning from Mr Massey, Mr Easton said he couldn't recall telling one of Ms McBride's friends: "I met someone else, I'm seeing someone else and she sort of grabbed her stuff and walked out".
He also said he couldn't remember saying something similar to Mr Newson when he came to pick up Ms McBride.
Mr Easton said he couldn't recall Mr Newson being angry with him and the pair arguing because Mr Easton was "so calm" and "didn't seem to care" Ms McBride was missing.