He Told Me He Did It: Inmate

Newcastle Herald

Friday November 18, 2005

By DAN PROUDMAN

ACCUSED killer Daniel James Davies confessed his crime to a jail inmate after becoming upset with news that a person had "given him up", Newcastle Supreme Court heard yesterday.

A witness, who was named in court as Steven James , said yesterday Davies told him of his part in a murder after he appeared "upset, a bit stressed out" when he ended a phone conversation at Cessnock jail in March last year.

James, who told the court he had become friends with Davies while they were in jail together, said the conversation turned to murder as the pair walked away from making phone calls.

James said Davies told him he had shot a man in the leg following an incident, and that Davies and another man had later "shot him twice in the head".

When asked yesterday who Davies said shot the man, James replied: "He said he did".

Davies, 25, has pleaded not guilty to murdering Damien Meredith at Swansea on or about September 28, 2002 just days before the victim was due to give evidence in court that Davies had shot him in the toe.

James said Davies had just received news that a person had spoken to police, or "given him up", about his alleged involvement in the murder.

Davies told him he had "lured (the victim) in with a drug deal" and had planned to blame another man, Peter Carruthers, for the murder.

When asked what Davies had said about Carruthers, James replied, in part: "If worse comes to worst I'm going to put it on Pete Carruthers something like that".

Carruthers has given evidence at the trial where it was heard he had received a maximum 25-year jail sentence after pleading guilty to the Meredith murder.

Under cross-examination, James denied he had made up the conversation to gain personal advantage.

James told the court that police had offered to 'expedite' his application for an interstate transfer for his testimony.

But that transfer never eventuated.

"I don't give a stuff now, I've only got four months to go, you know what I mean," James said.

He later said: "I have got no advantage now".

The trial before acting Justice David Patten continues.

© 2005 Newcastle Herald

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