Husband confessed to nurse killing, court hears

A photo from a Facebook page dedicated to murdered Royal North Shore hospital nurse Michelle Beets.

A photo from a Facebook page dedicated to murdered Royal North Shore hospital nurse Michelle Beets.

THE man accused of cutting the throat of the nurse manager Michelle Beets told his wife he was responsible for the crime, telling her ”that bitch is gone, from now on I won’t have any more bad references,” a court has heard.

The former US Marine, Walter Ciaran Marsh, 50, has pleaded not guilty to the murder of Ms Beets almost three months after she decided not to renew his contract at the emergency department of the Royal North Shore Hospital.

The Crown alleges Mr Marsh slit her throat and stabbed her eight times in the chest because he believed her ”bad references” were preventing him gaining another job.

Yesterday Mr Marsh’s wife, Samantha Marsh, told the NSW Supreme Court he had described in considerable detail how he killed Ms Beets and had calmly disposed of his clothing and settled down to watch a movie.

Mrs Marsh said when she met her husband on the night Ms Beets was murdered, he told her what he had done.

”He told me it was done – he said ‘I did it, let’s go home’,” she said. ”He told me not to worry, that everything has been taken care of, there are no traces linking it to him. He would be the last one [police would suspect], the one no one would think of.”

But things didn’t go as Mr Marsh had planned, the court heard. Mrs Marsh said Ms Beets had changed her pattern that day and her husband didn’t catch her completely by surprise as he intended.

”He had to walk to the spot where she was standing and she started screaming,” Mrs Marsh said. ”He pushed her down and asked her to stop screaming and that if she didn’t he would hurt her. She said she was scared and that’s why she screamed. At that point he cut her throat.”

Mrs Marsh said that on their way home her husband stopped at an apartment with a swimming pool, stripped off and dived into the water.

She said later that night he left the house to dispose of his shoes and clothing before relaxing on the couch, having a couple of drinks and watching a movie.

”He said, ‘You see, it’s simple. I’m still here, I’m not even sweating’,” she said.

Mr Marsh had been practising with a flick knife in the weeks before Ms Beets was murdered, and on one occasion demonstrated on his wife the movements for cutting a person’s throat, the court was told.

”One night I walked into the bathroom and he asked if I can try something,” she said.

”He put his hand around my upper chest so I couldn’t move and held the other hand out – it had something in it. He said, ‘You’re supposed to use both your hands to get me off.’ I was afraid so I didn’t move.”

Earlier in her evidence, Mrs Marsh said her husband had told her before Ms Beet’s death that ”an organisation” in Ireland had given him ”permission to kill a particular person”.

The case continues today.

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