Gemma Elizabeth Clark, 27, also revealed that she was scared of Jack Harrison Vincent Sadler after a family violence incident in the days before the alleged murder.

She was afraid he would hurt her dog and family.

Mr Sadler, 29, has pleaded not guilty to murdering Jake Anderson-Brettner, 24, at Riverside on August 15, 2018.

The Crown alleges Mr Sadler shot the deceased three times before decapitating and dismembering his body and disposing of his torso on The Sideling and other body parts in wheelie bins around Launceston and Gravelly Beach.

Clark pleaded guilty in 2019 to failing to report a killing and being an accessory after the fact of the alleged murder and received a five and a half year jail sentence.

But she said she did not know what the sentence discount was. She said she was aware that if she did not give satisfactory evidence her sentence could be appealed by the Crown and possibly increased.

She said she had told police in 2018 that she was prepared to give evidence.

Under cross examination by defence counsel Greg Richardson, she admitted to lying to police for self-preservation in the early days of the investigation. He asked her why she had not taken the opportunity to "separate from these events?".

"If I disappeared I was afraid he would hurt my dog and hurt my family," she said.

Under re-examination by Director of Public Prosecutions Daryl Coates SC, Clark was asked why she was scared of Mr Sadler.

"Because of things he said during our relationship, Jack did not trust me, if I talked to my friends he would interrogate me about what I talked about, was I talking about him," she said.

"He said 'if you do wrong by me you won't remember but everyone around you will start getting hurt'."

She said he had thrown her up the stairs after an argument about a night out.

Clark said that in the days after the alleged murder Mr Sadler told her as they showered together that Mr Anderson-Brettner would turn up because he had "probably done a bender like and it would all be over".

Mr Richardson questioned whether that could be true after she had helped Mr Sadler clean up and they had driven all over Northern Tasmania.

"It's conflicting but that is what he said," she said.

"The reason he said it was because I was upset and stressed."

Clark was asked by Mr Richardson: "In an interview did a police officer ask you if you guys woke up and talked about it? Did you say that 'we had sex and Jack pottered around the house'?".

"I don't recall having sex that day," she replied.

The jury heard that Clark co-operated with police after being arrested and interviewed on August 16, 2018.

She said that Mr Sadler had told her what to say to police. "Jack told me not to mention the Jeep, the Jeep didn't exist," she said.

The jury has heard that Mr Sadler's black Jeep Cherokee was used to dispose of Mr Anderson-Brettner's body and was then parked in Andrea Place, Riverside. A duffel bag containing cash was hidden in the Jeep after it was parked. After an interview in which Clark told police about the Jeep, the couple were released and stayed at the Silos Hotel.

"I told Jack what I told police, he was angry and said 'I told you not to talk about the Jeep'," she said.

Clark said that on August 19 she took police to The Sideling where Mr Anderson-Brettner's torso was found and also to Gravelly Beach. She said that in a third and fourth interview with police she had told them what happened.

Mr Richardson asked if Clark had written a love letter to Mr Sadler saying "our family is still possible" which was smuggled to him in the jail system. Clark agreed with a suggestion that she was lying to Mr Sadler. "I wasn't going to say 'yes I've been talking to police'," she said.

"So it was written out of fear, not love?" Mr Richardson asked.

"Yes," she replied.

Mr Richardson cross-examined Clark about the song Dead Body Disposal which the Crown alleges gave Mr Sadler the idea of cutting up the deceased.

"I suggest he did not play it at all," he asked. "Well he did," Clark replied. He suggested she had not told police about the song until August 2020. "I don't remember," she said.

He asked her about any knowledge of Mr Sadler's drug manufacturing business which he suggested was carried out at the Dion Crescent house.

"Did Mr Sadler and another man remove a pill press from the house?" he asked.

"No one else came to the house except the police," she said.

He asked her if Mr Anderson-Brettner had a drug debt to a Victorian supplier which resulted in a threat to Mr Sadler. "Not that he told me," she said.

Clark denied that she had seen Mr Anderson- Brettner on the night he died.

"I knew something wrong had happened but I had never seen Jake, how was I supposed to know it was him," she said.

But she agreed that she had cooked up a mixture of cayenne pepper, vinegar and baby oil to put in garbage bags to suppress the smell.

The jury heard that the couple had a Macaw [an exotic South American parrot] which was loose in the house.

Detective Sergeant Peter Roberts said that Mr Sadler appeared slightly nervous when police visited on August 16. The house smelt strongly of bleach.

"He said Mr Anderson-Brettner had come to his house sometime after 7pm but did not stay very long and left saying he would come back," he said.

"He said he went looking for him in Legana and around Launceston.

"I asked whether we could come into the house to check that Mr Anderson-Brettner was not in the house and he said no."

Then Detective-constable Gavin Chugg said Mr Sadler appeared to be sweating and had something white at the corner of his mouth.

"I smelt a strong smell of cleaning product and a slight sooty smell," he said.

The jury has heard that Mr Sadler and Ms Clark cleaned the house with bleach and burnt clothes, gloves and carpet in the woodheater causing blood to come out of the fire onto the brickwork.

Mr Richardson also asked Clark about text messages she sent to Mr Sadler.

"Did you get silverside and are you still visiting," she texted. "Yeah baby just got held up arguing with Brettner," he replied.

"Please tell me you punched him ha ha," Clark texted. "I'm going to," Mr Sadler replied.

She said Mr Sadler should put a go-pro on his head "so I can watch and send it to him every time he's being a little bitch ha ha". Clark said it sounded serious now but was taken out of context.

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