Steven Leslie Hainsworth: Victim found with dress pulled up, alleged serial killer's trial told

A woman’s body was in a state of undress when discovered by her 11-year-old grandson, the trial of a man accused of three cold-case murders has been told.

Mildura man Steven Leslie Hainsworth, 49, is on trial in the South Australian Supreme Court charged with the murders of Phyllis Harrison, 71, at Elizabeth South in 1998, Beverley Hanley, 64, at Elizabeth North in 2010 and Stephen Newton, 55, at Mt Gambier in 2011.

Giving evidence on Wednesday, Mrs Harrison’s daughter Julie Lane said she received a call from her sister Dianne Smoker, who was “frantic” and told her she had found their mother on the floor of her home.

Mrs Lane and her husband Patrick rushed to the address where Mrs Lane said she went into the house and knelt next to her mother’s body, checking her neck for a pulse without success.

When asked by Director of Public Prosecutions Martin Hinton KC what she did next, Mrs Lane became emotional.

“I pulled down her dress … it was up by the hips ... (it exposed) mum’s pubic region,” she told the court.

Asked if her mother was wearing any underwear, she replied: “No.”

Mrs Lane said she used both her hands to pull the hem of her mother’s dress down.

She described her mother as a regular churchgoer, who attended Bible studies, and would arrange flowers at her local church.

She enjoyed line dancing and was a member of the Elizabeth bowling club.

Earlier, Mrs Harrison’s grandson, Luke Smoker, gave evidence that he was aged 11 when he went to his grandmother’s home on March 3, 1998.

He said he remembered being picked up from school by his mother, Dianne, and going into his grandmother’s house “and finding her on the kitchen floor with a pool of blood next to her head”.

“I moved closer to the kitchen bench, and then could see the whole body, and then saw the blood up near the head, and then yelled out to Mum, something like ‘Mum, Mum, come and have a look at this’,” he said.

He said his mother “let out a bit of a shriek” and said “oh no”.

“Then I went over and touched Nanna to stir her,” he said.

Mr Smoker agreed that in a statement to police, he said: “I remember through a phone call Mum was asked to touch Nanna to see if she was cold and I remember her touching her forehead.”

He told the court that he noticed his grandmother’s German shepherd, Heidi, was under the dining room table, which was “quite a surprise” because she normally greeted visitors.

He said his mother had a stroke in March 2024, and now suffered short-term memory loss, and had trouble multitasking.

On Wednesday, prosecutor Amelia Cairney told the court that Hainsworth, then aged 23, was living next door to Mrs Harrison, moving in weeks before the murder.

He had entered via an unlocked door at the rear of the house about 8pm on March 2, 1998 looking for items of value, she said.

“Having encountered Mrs Harrison in her kitchen, he stabbed and killed her,” she said.

She said Hainsworth’s DNA profile was found on Mrs Harrison’s body, her clothing and on carpet near her body.

The judge-alone trial before Justice Adam Kimber continues.