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'Demon pair made me clean friend's murder'

A man who says he was forced at gunpoint to clean up after his friend was tortured and murdered has described the accused killers as "demons".

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Source: AAP


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A man who allegedly watched his friend be tortured before she was murdered by a "demon" couple says he is still haunted by memories of being forced at gunpoint to clean up the crime scene.

A court has heard mother-of-four Tia Landers and friends Jake McKenzie, 23, and Ryan Morgan, 20, visited a north Brisbane home on June 16 last year to sell drugs to raise money for Ms Landers' jailed brother.

Ms Landers' body was found dumped in a shallow grave at Beerburrum State Forest near the Glasshouse Mountains about two weeks later.

John Edward Harris, 43, and Linda Eileen Appleton, 42, were committed in Brisbane Magistrates Court on Friday to stand trial for the torture and murder of Ms Landers, 28.

Mr McKenzie and Mr Morgan were allegedly made to watch Ms Landers' being tortured before she was shot and killed in a different room of the home.

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They were then allegedly forced at gunpoint to clean up the crime scene.

Mr McKenzie said he was reluctant to read his witness statement describing the incident because "this haunts me daily".

"John and Linda, right, are f***ing demons that killed Tia. Simple. Full stop," Mr McKenzie told the court.

He said Harris and Appleton ordered him to clean up.

"It was either get chopped up with a machete or get shot in the face with a gun, so 'do as you're told or you get hurt'," he said.

Mr McKenzie described Appleton as a "psycho" who wanted to kill all three of them, but Harris did not let her "because then they would have had three bodies to get rid of".

Mr McKenzie and Mr Morgan both admitted to lying in their first witness statements to detectives because they feared Harris and Appleton, who were not in custody at that point, might seek revenge.

Mr Morgan also conceded he was a mild drug user before the incident, but said he started using harder drugs more frequently afterwards to help cope. The habit had landed him behind bars.

"That's the only way I can cope with every day, that I have to deal with what this putrid c***'s done to my friend," Mr Morgan said as he looked at Harris in the dock.

Appleton appeared from prison via video link, but seemed to be reading a book throughout the proceedings.

Magistrate Noel Nunan committed the pair to stand trial in Brisbane Supreme Court on nine charges each - including murder, torture and deprivation of liberty - at a date to be set.


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