Paul James Wilkinson, 31, a former NSW police force employee, was charged on Tuesday with murdering 23-year-old Kylie Labouchardiere.
The young student nurse was last seen alive at Sutherland, in Sydney's south, at about 6pm on April 28, 2004.
Wilkinson's lawyer, Frances McGowan, told Sydney's Central Local Court her client had been "harassed by police" during their three-year investigation and she had expected to have some information about the police case before his appearance in court.
"After three years, I would expect the defence to have a partial brief," Ms McGowan said.
"I want to establish the strength of the Crown case."
Wilkinson appeared via videolink from Silverwater Jail and his parents were in the court.
Ms Labouchardiere, an enrolled nurse, packed two suitcases on the day she disappeared and left the home she shared with her grandmother on the NSW central coast, saying she was travelling to Goulburn.
Phone records indicate she was at Sutherland railway station about 9pm that day.
Police searched a specific area of the Royal National Park but did not find a body.
The police prosecutor told the court the Crown would provide a partial brief of the police investigation to Ms McGowan by May 8.
Magistrate Alan Moore remanded Wilkinson in custody to appear in Central Local Court on May 24.
AAP
Paul James Wilkinson admits to killing lover Kylie Labouchardiere
November 24, 2008 12:00am
FOUR years ago, Paul James Wilkinson was making headlines with wild allegations of corruption at a parliamentary inquiry into policing in Redfern.
An Aboriginal liaison officer with NSW Police since the late 1990s, he claimed his house had been burnt down and police had threatened to kill him because of his whistleblowing.
Wilkinson was hiding his own deadly secret. Five months earlier he had strangled his young, pregnant girlfriend and would later try to pin his crimes on an innocent police officer.
Although he pleaded guilty to murder on November 12, he has led police on a $250,000 wild goose chase as they try to find the body of his victim, 23-year-old student nurse Kylie Labouchardiere.
After more than four years of playing cat-and-mouse with Gosford detectives, the 33-year-old has finally admitted to killing Ms Labouchardiere.
She was training at Sutherland Hospital as a nurse and lived in The Shire with her husband, a naval officer, until shortly before her murder.
They separated amicably and she moved into her grandmother's house in Erina. By then she had already become romantically involved with Wilkinson.
Neither friends nor family knew of Wilkinson's existence.
Their relationship began in December 2003, and he soon began bombarding her with texts and phone calls.
The pair exchanged more than 20,000 in the five months leading up to her death on April 28, 2004.
The month before she died, Wilkinson abruptly stopped turning up to work. That coincided with Ms Labouchardiere's news - doctors had confirmed she was pregnant.
It was believed to be Wilkinson's child. But he was living in Picnic Point with his wife and their newborn son.
Ms Labouchardiere made plans to move to Dubbo. She booked a removalist to meet her there on April 29 but she failed to show up. The night before she left her grandmother's home in Erina saying she was going away with friends but would be back to join her family at an engagement party the following week. She caught a train south.
Days passed as he worried family could not reach her by phone. When her family went through the phone records, they found the startling amount of calls from the same number and rang it.
Wilkinson told the family he was helping with a complaint she had made to police about being sexually assaulted. He said she had been having an affair and had gone to South Australia.
In early May, her family reported her missing to Gosford police. Later that month, Wilkinson set fire to his rented home in Picnic Point, causing substantial damage. He recently pleaded guilty to the arson but shortly after Ms Labouchardiere's disappearance he told police she and a man had assaulted him, tied him up and set fire to the house.
The following year, Wilkinson approached the Police Integrity Commission and accused a serving NSW police officer of Ms Labouchardiere's murder.
Wilkinson claimed to have been present when the officer murdered her in the Royal National Park at Sutherland and buried her near a firetrail.
The officer, sources say, remains mystified as to why Wilkinson nominated someone he did not know well to undergo a gruelling investigation, only to be exonerated.
When police arrested Wilkinson in April last year, he was cocky as he told The Daily Telegraph the "real story" was yet to emerge.
Detective Senior-Constable Glenn Smith told Wilkinson's sentencing hearing on Friday police could no longer rely on him to assist with finding the remains. The court heard Wilkinson had nominated two places in the Royal National Park and three at Mooney Mooney.
The closest they have come is finding a doona in a quarry at Mooney Mooney.
Ms Labouchardiere's family have told police they can no longer deal with the cruelty of false hope of finding her remains - then being dashed again.
Girlfriend-killer James Wilkinson facing sentence
April 23, 2009 12:00am
WHEN Kylie Labouchardiere arrived in Sydney with two packed suitcases, the pregnant 23-year-old thought she was starting a new life with her married lover.
The student nurse had already arranged for her furniture to be sent to Dubbo, where she and Paul James Wilkinson were to set up house together.
But instead of leaving his wife, Wilkinson murdered his girlfriend in April 2004 and weeks later tried to cover his tracks by burning down the rental house he shared with his spouse.
In the ensuing years, he told lie after lie, including blaming a policeman for her murder and indicating fake spots where her body was buried.
Yesterday in the NSW Supreme Court, the 33-year-old former NSW Police Aboriginal liaison officer faced a sentencing hearing after finally admitting to her murder last November.
At one stage, he agreed to plead guilty to manslaughter, and said he had been provoked into strangling his pregnant girlfriend.
He also pleaded guilty to arson and will be sentenced next month.