The Queensland man witnesses say may have murdered Annette Mason in 1989 says he was in bed early the night was bashed to death.

December 5, 2018

A Queensland man whose name has been linked to the 1989 murder of Annette Mason insists he only briefly met the teen hours before she was bashed to death by someone else.

Michael Laine, now 53, has told an inquest into the 15-year-old’s death he went to bed early the night she was murdered because he was “crook” after partying too much.

He became a person-of-interest after the teenager was found raped and beaten to death in her bed in a share house in Toowoomba, about five houses from where he lived.

On Wednesday, Mr Laine said he was on the dole and broke at the time.

He says he didn’t “hit the grog” the night before Annette’s body was found because he was recovering from the night before.

Mr Laine has struggled to recall events from the period at the inquest.

But he says the first he knew of Annette’s murder was a call from one of his housemates after her body was discovered.

“She said ‘she’s dead’ or something and, as I said previously, I thought it might have been one of the kids that had been hit out on the road or something,” Mr Laine told counsel assisting the coroner Adrian Braithwaite.

Mr Laine says he was interviewed by police the day Annette’s body was found.

But he had little information for investigators because he had only seen the teen briefly on the evening before she died.

Annette and her friend Denise had visited the house he shared with friends for a few minutes before his flatmate gave them a lift into town, he said.

“I’ve been in pub brawls all me life and I’m certainly no angel, but this thing was out of my league. It rattled me,” he said.

Several witnesses have told the inquest Mr Laine was a violent man who had threatened people he believed had given statements against him to investigators.

Coroner Terry Ryan is investigating Annette’s death with new information, some 27 years after a first inquest failed to find sufficient evidence to pin down her killer.

At least five witnesses, including police, have told the coroner that Allan McQueen, also known as Allan Gill, made a series of admissions regarding Annette’s death.

He is also a person-of-interest to the inquest and was allegedly seen with blood on his clothes about the time Annette was murdered.

The inquest continues.