October 17, 2012
A witness stormed out of Kingaroy Magistrates Court today, momentarily disrupting the hearing of a murder charge against a 38-year-old Nanango man.
Stephen Doyle is charged with the murder of Michael Thomsen, 37, at Nanango on September 3 last year.
The witness, a son of the deceased man, was being cross-examined by defence barrister Kim Bryson when he abruptly said he’d had enough, began cursing the court and marched out of the witness box.
As he passed the dock, he hurled abuse at the defendant before he left courtroom, slamming the back door and dislodging a clock on the wall which smashed to the ground.
In the stunned silence that followed, Magistrate Mark Bucknall asked Police Prosecutor Sgt Wayne Bushell if he wished to make any application in regards to the witness, but the prosecutor said he was loathe to take any action as the witness had lost his father.
After a short adjournment, the court re-opened and Sgt Bushell asked that the witness’s testimony be adjourned to resume at the next hearing date, which was granted.
The hearing, which will determine whether Doyle should face trial in the Supreme Court, heard evidence from people who were attending an engagement party at a house in Fitzroy Street, Nanango, on the evening that Thomsen died.
The court was told of several scuffles which occurred during the course of the night.
These altercations allegedly involved Doyle, who lived next door, two of his friends, and guests at the party related to the couple who were getting engaged.
During one of these incidents, one of the girls becoming engaged – the daughter of the deceased – was allegedly knocked out.
A witness, Shane O’Halloran, told the court he saw the deceased get an axe handle out of a boat parked in the yard and try to swing it at someone in the fight, either Doyle or one of his friends. He said Doyle then ran up the stairs into his house, and came back down with a knife.
He said he saw Doyle lift his arm with the knife “like you would if you were going to stab someone”.
The hearing will resume in Kingaroy Magistrates Court on November 26.
