ONE of the men charged with murdering Ravenswood man Scott Rock threatened to kill anyone who spoke about the matter to police, a Launceston court has heard.
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Neville Lindsay Whiting, 31, and Sean Timothy Hudson, 36, both of Ravenswood, are charged with murdering 43-year-old Mr Rock on March 29.
His partially burned body was found by a wallaby hunter in Hollybank Reserve six days later.
A key witness in the case, Teena Louise Kelly, 31, told a preliminary proceeding hearing at the Launceston Magistrates Court yesterday that Mr Whiting had warned against speaking out about the crime.
"Neville said: `If anyone goes to the police, four holes will be dug the next morning'," Ms Kelly said.
"Sean (Hudson) wanted to, but I was too afraid."
Ms Kelly said both men were drinking at her house on March 29 when Mr Rock arrived.
Mr Rock was a former partner of Ms Kelly and the father of one of her children.
She said they had been arguing via text message earlier that day and the argument continued when he got to her house.
She said she told him to leave, throwing her glass at him, then went to comfort a child who had been woken by the yelling.
Mr Hudson and Mr Whiting followed Mr Rock outside.
The men allegedly left soon after with her car and did not return it until almost 8am the following day.
Ms Kelly said Mr Hudson, with whom she was then in a de-facto relationship, told her "in a way" about what had happened to Mr Rock, but she "didn't want to believe it".
"He came into my daughter's room and said he had hit him," she said, adding that she later heard Mr Whiting had "smashed him in the face with a six-pack".
She said Mr Whiting bragged of the murder to her, saying "most people pay $5000 for what I've done, but you can have mates' rates".
Ms Kelly said she went with Mr Hudson and another man to the car wash the next day because "someone had put a hose in the back of my car".
The other man, who cannot be named because he was 17 at the time of the alleged murder, gave evidence that there was blood in the back of the car and they had cleaned it out.
He told the court he had gone to Ms Kelly's house earlier that morning at Mr Whiting's instruction, and spoken to Mr Hudson.
"What did Sean tell you at that time?" Crown prosecutor John Ransom asked.
"That they had killed Scott last night," the man said.
"He said ... that Sean had hit him a couple of times and after that was when Neville bashed him more."
The man said he had driven with Mr Hudson and Ms Kelly past the bloodstained road where the murder allegedly occurred on their way to Mr Hudson's court appearance that morning.
The court also heard evidence from Skye Kaye, who was then in a relationship with the man.
"Neville asked (the man) to burn his shirt in the backyard," Ms Kaye said.
"I sat outside and had a cigarette and watched him do that, while the kids ate breakfast."
Mr Whiting and Mr Hudson remain in custody for the alleged offence. They will reappear before the Supreme Court in Launceston on December 8.
•Teena Louise Kelly, 31, and Skye Chantelle Kaye, 27, have also been charged with being an accessory after the fact of murder.
