Two witnesses told the Mackay sisters murder trial yesterday how they had been haunted by the memory of seeing the two little girls being driven by their abductor through the streets of Townsville 29 years ago.
Vietnam veteran Neil Lunney twice told Townsville Supreme Court the man he saw that day was Arthur Stanley Brown, the 87-year-old retired carpenter charged with the murder of the sisters.
During questioning by defence counsel Mark Donnelly about the appearance and dress of the man he saw driving the girls, Mr Lunney gestured towards Brown in the dock and snapped: "What are we talking about this for? He is sitting right there."
Susan Mackay, 5, and her sister Judith, 7, disappeared while waiting to catch a bus to school in the Townsville suburb of Aitkenvale on August 26, 1970. Their bodies were found two days later in the dry bed of Antill Creek, 25km south-west of Townsville.
Brown has pleaded not guilty to murdering the girls, sexually assaulting them and depriving them of their liberty.
Mr Lunney, then a 29-year-old soldier recently returned from Vietnam, said he was running late for work on the day the Mackay sisters disappeared.
Driving towards Lavarack Barracks, he was angered by a driver who would not let him pass. Sitting in the front seat with the man were two little girls in the green uniforms of Aitkenvale State School -- the school the Mackay sisters attended.
During a heated exchange with Mr Donnelly, Mr Lunney was reminded that many times after that day he would drive around Townsville looking for the man he had seen with the girls.
Mr Lunney jumped to his feet and shouted: "If you had the same images in your mind of that man and those children you would feel the same way."
Justice Keiran Cullinane ordered him to sit down.
Mr Lunney said that finding the man and helping to bring him to justice would "drive the images out of my mind".
William Hankin, a council roller driver, saw two school-girls being driven by a man in the Aitkenvale area the same day. He said he had flashbacks whenever he returned to the scene.
"I see those little girls going past...all over again," he said.
Jean Thwaite,76, said she saw the Mackay sisters about 11am the same day at the service station she ran with her husband in Ayr, 85km south of Townsville.
Mrs Thwaite said she became aware it was the Mackay sisters the next night, when she recognised the younger girl in a photograph shown in a television news report of their disappearance.
The trial continues.
Further articles from The Australian and The Weekend Australian: