Woodchipper murder case: Brisbane court played covert listening devices planted by police

Shortly after speaking to police, Peter Koenig was furious over questions about the death of Bruce Saunders’ wood chipper, a court has heard.

“I’m not fucking happy with anyone. Someone is lying,” Koenig is said to have texted Sharon Graham.

Gregory Lee Roser, 63, is on trial for murder after Saunders died in November 2017 while working on an estate north of Brisbane.

The Crown alleges that Sharon Graham (pictured) asked her lovers Roser and Koenig to murder her ex-partner, Mr Saunders, and make it look like an accident in an attempt to claim his $750,000 life insurance

The Crown alleges that Graham asked her lovers Roser and Koenig to kill her ex-partner Saunders and make it look like an accident in an attempt to claim his $750,000 life insurance policy.

A Brisbane Supreme Court jury has been shown images of Mr Saunders’ legs sticking out of the chipper on the Goomboorian site near Gympie after felling trees with Roser and Koenig.

The moment Graham received Koenig’s text after speaking to police in February 2018 was captured between hours of police audio played in court on Wednesday.

Koenig sent the message from Gympie Police Station for the hour’s drive to Nambour to meet Roser and Graham, the court heard.

Peter Koenig (pictured) sent the text message from Gympie Police Station before the hour drive to Nambour to meet Roser and Graham, court heard

While Koenig was behind the wheel, Graham can be heard discussing his lines with Roser, who had previously spoken to police.

“He’s all shaken up,” Graham said in police audio recorded with listening devices at her Nambour home.

“They (police) made him angry.

“They tried to get him to spit out some truth… they woke him up—I bet damn money.”

She then wonders if the police “twisted” Roser’s words about Mr Saunders’ death in an attempt to break up Koenig.

“You could have gotten a slip of the tongue on something that may have meant nothing to you, but they used it,” she told Roser.

“They know they can’t break you, but they know they can break Peter…because he’s the silent one.”

Roser assures Graham (pictured together) in the taped audio that he will not ‘dob’ in Koenig during his police interrogation

Roser assures Graham that he did not “float” in Koenig during his police interrogation.

“They’re trying to pit Peter and I against each other. I’ve never said anything wrong,” he said.

Graham claims their phones are tapped before Roser is told to speak to Koenig in a car outside when he arrives at the Nambour residence and writes down what he told the police “word for word”.

Graham later tells Roser, “Thank God you have a lawyer, that’s all I can say.”

Audio of Roser discussing his January 2018 police interview with Graham just hours after speaking with officers was previously played before the jury.

Roser told police that Saunders’ death was a horrific accident and that he was trying to save him, claiming that his friend had been reckless near the machine but disregarded warnings.

Graham (pictured alongside her ex-partner Bruce Saunders, who was allegedly murdered on a Brisbane estate in 2017) has pleaded not guilty to murder

“I didn’t panic,” Roser told Graham.

“How dare they insinuate that I killed that guy, that’s awful. It made me feel very bad.’

Roser’s lawyer has already told the jury that everything his client told the police was lies.

Lars Falcongreen said Roser did not dispute that Mr Saunders was murdered or that his client “shamelessly” helped dispose of the body.

However, Falcongreen said it was Koenig who was bought by Graham and who was responsible for the murder.

Koenig pleaded guilty this year to complicity in murder.

Roser and Graham plead not guilty to murder.

Graham has successfully applied for a separate trial.

Roser’s trial for Judge Martin Burns continues.