Preliminary hearing starts for Steven Laffin

A preliminary hearing for the man accused of killing Nadine Taylor began Monday.

Steven Elliot Laffin, 37, is charged with the second-degree murder of Taylor, a Halifax woman who disappeared in 2010.

Details of witnesses and their testimony cannot be made public because of a ban on the publication of evidence.

Taylor, 29, was reported missing on July 31, 2010. Police said she was slain, though they never found her body.

Laffin became a suspect that August when a sex worker accused him of attacking her and stuffing her in the trunk of his car.

The woman said she was choked, sexually assaulted and threatened with death. She said her ankles and wrists were bound, but she managed to escape from the trunk.

Laffin is facing charges of attempted murder, kidnapping and aggravated sexual assault in that case.

He has been in custody at the Central Nova Scotia Correction since his arrest in 2010. He faces an assault charge in an incident involving another inmate.

'He looks like a demon'

Donna Taylor attended the hearing and watched her daughter's alleged killer's behaviour. "He's doing a bit of laughing. He's creepy," she said outside the court. "You want to know the truth? He looks like a demon."

Asked what she would like to say about Nadine, she said she had faced many challenges. "Poor, disadvantaged and helpless. That's what she was," she said.

Kevin Burke, Laffin's lawyer, said the crux of the case is yet to come.

"This case is basically a forensic case. The remaining case is really the nuts and bolts of the case," he said.

Nine days have been set aside for the preliminary inquiry in the Taylor case.

The hearing will determine whether there's enough evidence for a trial.