A MAN with an alleged sexual interest in teenage girls who police allege left Oberon suddenly just hours after Jessica Small disappeared is expected to give evidence at the inquest into the missing teenager’s presumed murder on Wednesday.
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On Tuesday the inquest heard from five witnesses - three of whom, including his ex-girlfriend, said former Oberon man Andrew McBride had “a thing” for teenage girls.
Caroline Anne Livingstone, the mother of Mr McBride’s former girlfriend Leila Williams, told the inquest he was obsessed with one teenage girl and use to leer at her.
Ms Livingstone also told the inquest Mr McBride was violent and had aggressive mannerisms.
She told the inquest how on one occasion she was walking up the stairwell of the Mana Flats complex in Dart Street, Oberon when Mr McBride threw Leila down the stairs.
“He picked her up by the scruff of the neck and by her pants and threw her down the stairs,” she said.
Ms Livingstone told the inquest she wanted to call the police but Leila didn’t want her to.
She also told the inquest she believed Mr McBride was obsessed with a 15-year-old girl [whose identity has been suppressed], and used to leer at her.
“They weren’t ordinary glances, he watched every move she made. To me, it was unnatural,” she said.
Ms Livingstone continued telling the inquest how on Sunday, October 26, 1997, Mr McBride and Leila moved out of their flat suddenly.
“I remember driving into the flats, it was about 11.30am,” she said.
“Andrew came and asked me for $200 to move to Sydney. It was just surprising."
She also said she had a very specific recollection of Mr McBride washing the walls in the unit.
“I thought it was good [of him] to do it, a lot of people don't do that,” Ms Livingstone said.
When asked by counsel assisting the coroner, Ian Bourke, about Mr McBride’s car, Ms Livingstone said she recalled he had a white car but couldn't comment on the make or model.
“But it was a white sedan, not a hatchback,”" she said, adding she recalled the tail lights being different.
Going to back to the couple's sudden departure from Oberon, Deputy State Coroner Sharon Freund asked Ms Livingstone did she find it odd they were leaving for Sydney without a car.
Ms Livingstone said at the time she didn’t think about it but, reflecting on it now, it was “very odd”.
Leila Williams also gave evidence, telling the inquest her former boyfriend Mr McBride had an infatuation with younger women.
She also described her former boyfriend as “a chronic liar” and “a storyteller”.
Another female witness told the inquest yesterday afternoon she clearly recalled Mr McBride driving around Oberon in a white Commodore.
The witness said there were only two Commodores like it in Oberon at the time, and the other one was owned by a close friend of hers.
"Andy's had an orange blanket covering the back seat. I don't know if the seat was ripped but the orange blanket was there all the time," she said.