Young's defence says surviving witness may have been involved in the killings
At the Supreme Court in the Australian city of Townsville, the lawyer for Darryl Valroy Young, who denies guilt on three murder charges, told jurors that surviving witness Ross Tighe may have been involved in the crime or inflicted the injury on himself. Young also denies guilt on a charge of attempted murder of Ross Tighe.
As ABC News Australia reports, on 4 August 2022, married couple Mervin and Marie Schwartz and Marie's son, Graham Tighe, were found dead near the gate of the Bogie pastoral station owned by Young. Ross Tighe, Graham's brother, told the court that he saw the defendant shoot his family and that he was wounded himself.
Defence position
During his closing address, lawyer Anthony J. Kimmins said that Young was not at the gate at 8:07 on 4 August 2022, when, according to the prosecution's case, the shooting occurred. He urged jurors to question the reliability of Ross Tighe's testimony and asked why the attacker allegedly allowed the injured man to escape.
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According to Kimmins, none of the elements of the shooting considered by the court excludes the possibility that Ross Tighe could have committed them. The lawyer also referred to a doctor describing his injury as a shrapnel wound. The defence argued that if the injury had been inflicted by ammunition of a smaller calibre than .30-30, another weapon must have been at the scene. Kimmins said that the evidence presented to the court does not exclude the version that Ross Tighe may have wounded himself.
Shell casings and alibi
The court heard that shell casings from .30-30 rifle cartridges were found near the bodies of the three deceased people. Cartridges of the same calibre were found in Young's house, but he told the court that they did not belong to him.
The lawyer also insisted that the prosecution had not disproved Young's alibi. Young himself told the court that at around 8:00 he was travelling behind workers from a wind energy project who arrived at his property at about 7:30. The court was shown videos recorded by one of those workers at 8:04 on the station's grounds, about six kilometres from the gate. The hearing is ongoing.
