A man who disappeared from his rural property used to brag about his relationships with other women, before introducing his neighbour to a "very good friend" who's accused of murdering him.
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Robert Dickie introduced Kylie So, 51, to his neighbour Sandra Weavers on the morning of June 14, 2016.
Ms Weavers said Ms So was introduced as "a very, very good friend" of Mr Dickie, but the conversation became awkward when it turned to how long she would stay.
"Bob proceeded to put his head down, couldn't look at me anymore, and the conversation was abruptly stopped," Ms Weavers told the NSW Supreme Court on Thursday.
So is accused of murdering the 71-year-old within hours of that meeting and has pleaded not guilty.
She was extradited from New Zealand in 2020, where she returned the same month Mr Dickie disappeared.
Mr Dickie is believed to be dead, however his body has not been found.
His son Damien Dickie previously said he thought "an evil person" had fed his father to his own dogs.
He said he formed the theory the day he met So while searching for his father at the 36-hectare Elong Elong property, when she introduced herself as Mr Dickie's wife.
Mr Dickie engaged So as a sex worker years before the pair had resumed communicating in March 2016 and she travelled from New Zealand to central west NSW that June.
Prosecutor Liam Shaw has asked Justice Mark Ierace to infer Mr Dickie told So she would not be staying long-term at the property, leading to a "blood shedding event" in his bedroom.
Drops of blood were later found on his bed and mattress, spattered on walls and underneath carpet.
So's barrister Ian Nash suggested Ms Weavers attributed more significance to their interaction by the time she spoke to police investigating Mr Dickie's disappearance.
"The significance of this look ... might have been magnified by the fact that you suspected he was dead on the property," Mr Nash said, which Ms Weavers "categorically" denied.
Ms Weavers said Mr Dickie engaged in short-term relationships with women.
"(He) was a lonely old man and he had sex on his brain, that's what he thought about and it was common knowledge to us," Ms Weavers said.
She once caught a glimpse of a woman at his property, but knew of others.
"Bob would brag about it," she said.
Her husband Gary met Mr Dickie when he offered to help move some furniture as the Weavers were moving in.
They had occasional interactions after that and the pair discussed women once or twice.
"He used to go to Forbes (and) pick up girls from down there, bring them back for the weekend," Mr Weavers recalled Mr Dickie telling him.
Some of the women used drugs.
"He told me he's brought them home to see if he can dry them out," Mr Weavers said.
So claims Mr Dickie left the property in the company of other people, telling her he was going to a party, but never returning.
Mr Nash told the court it is a reasonable possibility.
Mr Dickie's "lifestyle" of having vulnerable, drug-addicted women stay at his property brought him into contact with a certain "millieu", and he may not have told So the truth about why he was meeting with them, Mr Nash told the court as the trial began.
The trial continues on Friday.
Australian Associated Press
