Bail refused in nurse murder case

The last person seen with a Sydney nurse who went missing 30 years ago told police he had sex with her but when he woke up she was gone, a court has heard.

Robert Adams, 61, was arrested in December over the 1983 disappearance of nurse Mary Louise Wallace.

He has been charged with her murder.

Ms Wallace, 33, was with friends at the Alpine Inn in Crows Nest before she went missing in the early hours of September 24, 1983.

Her body has never been found.

Ms Wallace's friends told police their friend got into a car with Adams after leaving the Alpine Inn.

"Over the course of the weekend after Ms Wallace disappeared the accused had the means to dispose of Ms Wallace's body," prosecutor Victoria Engel said in a bail application in the Central Local Court in Sydney on Monday.

"Later on the Sunday, he was seen by a number of people thoroughly cleaning his car."

DNA evidence allegedly links a hair from Adams' car boot to a hair from Ms Wallace's home, the court heard.

Ms Engel said Adams told police he had sex with Ms Wallace in his car, fell asleep and when he woke up she had left.

Friends did not know Ms Wallace to have sex on the first date, Ms Engel said.

The prosecution opposed bail as Adams was a "flight risk" and had applied for passport renewal about the time he was arrested.

Adams told Magistrate Les Mabbutt through video-link he made the passport application because he had family in New Zealand.

Adams' lawyer Greg James QC said it was only speculation Adams disposed of Ms Wallace's body.

"To make this speculation that it was at the hands of the accused after 30 years of investigation and nothing further coming forward has to leave the case completely without merit," he told the court.

Bail was refused and the case adjourned to March 20.