A woman accused of the murder of Samantha Kelly considered the two youngest of the late woman’s children as her own, a witness has told the Victorian Supreme Court.
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The first witnesses were called on Tuesday in the trials of Christine Ann Lyons and Ronald Lyons, who have each been charged with one count of murder and one count of attempted murder.
Both have pleaded not guilty to the charges.
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Ms Kelly and her four children lived with Ms Lyons and Mr Lyons, as well as Ms Lyon’s partner Peter Arthur, in Kangaroo Flat at the time of her death in January 2016.
During examination by Crown prosecutor Fran Dalziel, a neighbour of the household, Rebecca Stow, told the court that Ms Lyons had said to her that Ms Kelly's two youngest children were the children of she, Mr Lyons and Arthur, and she was going to take them.
Ms Stow told the court that in this conversation in the lead-up to Australia Day 2016, Ms Lyons said that someone had broken into the egg bank and stolen her eggs.
She said Ms Lyons told her Ms Kelly admitted to it.
She said Ms Lyons told her that the second-youngest of Ms Kelly’s children was supposed to be hers and Mr Lyons’ child, and the youngest was supposed to be hers and Arthur’s child.
“She said that Peter wouldn’t let anyone take [the youngest] because that was his daughter or something,” Ms Stow said.
Ms Stow also said that Ms Lyons had at one time asked that she and her partner have a baby for her, Mr Lyons and Arthur, to which she responded that she would think about it, but later declined when her partner refused.
She said she had another conversation about the matter with Ms Lyons shortly after Christmas 2015, during which Ms Lyons told her that she and Arthur were desperate for a baby.
The court heard that Ms Stow was also asked by Ms Lyons at one time about her thoughts on Ms Kelly’s parenting, and she replied that the children seemed happy with Ms Kelly.
But she said Ms Lyons told her that Ms Kelly would “dump” the children on her, leave them inside, and not feed them.
Ms Stow said Ms Lyons spoke nicely about Ms Kelly when in the same room as her, but when Ms Kelly was absent, she spoke “not very nicely”, calling her lazy and accusing her of not feeding her children.
She also recalled a conversation she had with Arthur, in which he said that Ms Kelly only had her children for money and if it weren’t for the money, she would dump her children.
She said Arthur told her that if Ms Kelly left, he would not let her take the children.
Ms Stow told the court that when she saw Ms Kelly’s children, she mostly saw them with Ms Lyons and Mr Lyons.
Ms Stow said she last saw Ms Kelly on New Year’s Eve 2015.
She said Ms Lyons told her on Australia Day that Ms Kelly had left the house and her children, and Ms Kelly had said she had had enough of the children.
Ms Stow told the court that Ms Lyons had said that Ms Kelly had left the house at 3.30am.
She also said she was told by Ms Lyons that in the week before, Ms Kelly had been going out with her boyfriend all the time, had seemed affected by heroin, and had acted distantly towards her children.
Ms Stow told the court that when one child asked if her mum was coming back, Ms Lyons said she and Arthur were their parents, and Mr Lyons could be their dad, too.
She said when another child was asked where her parents were, the child pointed to Ms Lyons and Arthur.
Ms Stow said Ms Lyons also requested that she provide a statement to police about Ms Kelly’s parenting, because Ms Lyons and Arthur were seeking custody of her children.
The court also heard that Ms Stow had received a letter from Ms Lyons, in which she wrote “I was being threatened and Peter was hurting me behind everyone’s back”.
In cross-examination by Ms Lyon’s defence lawyer Peter Kilduff, Ms Stow said she would see Ms Lyons and Ms Kelly using Facebook in the lounge room of their home together, and they would get along well.
Ms Stow told the court that Ms Kelly always seemed happy when she first met her, but in the time leading up to her disappearance she seemed “unhappy and distant”.
She said Ms Kelly was looking for her own home as it was too crowded in her bungalow at the property.
Mr Kilduff questioned Ms Stow on a letter she wrote to Ms Lyons in April 2016, in which she said she was 12 weeks’ pregnant and she did not know what to do, as she was having babies for Ms Lyons.
But Ms Stow told the court she did not remember writing that and the information was not correct, as she was not pregnant at that time.
Under questioning from Mr Kilduff, Ms Stow said she made her police statement in March 2016 based on her memory of events from July 2015 to Australia Day.
The court also heard from two witnesses who worked with a teenage girl who stayed with Ms Lyons, Mr Lyons and Arthur in 2015.
Joanne Ferguson said she had a conversation with Ms Lyons in 2015, who indicated that she wanted to be the girl's full-time carer and would "give her the life she never had".
Another witness, Phalen Taylor, said the girl told her that she saw Ms Lyons as a motherly figure, had a strong connection to her, and felt a lot of love and care for her.
Ms Taylor said Ms Lyons wanted to be assessed as a carer for the girl.
The court was played a recording of a police interview with the girl from September 2016, in which the girl said Ms Lyons and Mr Lyons gave her love.
"I loved them as my parents," she told the officer.
The girl said she called Ms Lyons 'Mum', that they bought her things, and that they gave her food, a bed and a roof over her head.
The trials continue before Justice Stephen Kaye in the Supreme Court of Victoria.