The Queensland man found guilty of murdering pregnant teen sex worker Tiffany Taylor in 2015 murdered his elderly neighbour about 40 years earlier.

March 20, 2020

The Queensland man who murdered pregnant teen prostitute Tiffany Taylor had killed before.

Rodney Wayne Williams, 65, was convicted on Friday of murdering the 16-year-old after meeting her on the Oasis dating website in July 2015.

His Brisbane Supreme Court trial heard the pair drove from a Logan motel to an isolated industrial area where “something happened”.

Traces of Tiffany’s blood were found in Williams’ Hyundai sedan, prosecutor Philip McCarthy QC told the jury during the three-and a-half-week trial.

“On the glove box, on the headrest of the passenger seat … on the front passenger seat, on the gear stick,” he said.

Williams told police Tiffany had suffered a nose bleed.

He denied having sex with the teen and said he simply gave her a lift to Redbank Plains, where she jumped out of his car at an intersection.

He later changed that story, saying he dropped Tiffany off at a truck stop on the Warrego Highway west of Brisbane, which was the last time he saw her.

But a witness told the jury she had seen Williams’ car on the same day near Esk, about 100km north of Logan, where police have searched bushland for Tiffany’s body without success.

Later in the day, Williams set about laying a false trail of communication with the teen on the Oasis website.

One message read: “Sorry I didn’t turn up, decided I wasn’t going to pay for it.”

Williams also attempted to flee to Darwin after officers searched his car and called him for another interview.

But detectives were watching and he was arrested at the Roma Street Station in Brisbane.

Williams’ part-heard sentencing hearing has been told the father-of-three was convicted for murder in 1978 after he stabbed an elderly neighbour in the back during a robbery.

He was sentenced to life in prison but released on parole after 15 years’ imprisonment.

In 1994 he was also convicted of two counts of indecent assault of a 14-year-old girl he was trusted to care for.

The sentencing hearing continues.