Australia Australia - Two Female Backpackers attacked at Salt Creek, SA, 9 Feb 2016

[cool12]

maybe he's not normally in a place with internet access to download a lot of *advertiser censored*? off the grid, so to speak.

thanks to all reporting on this case. i'm as impressed with the survivors as i am repulsed by the accused.

 

[JudgeJudi]

Sean Fewster @SeanFewster · 1m
The #SaltCreek trial has resumed. One juror has been hospitalised with illness. Trial will continue with 11 jurors.

Prosecutor Jim Pearce QC will give his closing address to the now 11-member jury.

 

[JudgeJudi]

Sean Fewster @SeanFewster · 27s
Pearce: "Defence told you things are not always what they seem. Then we heard the evidence. If you accept it, the accused is guilty."

Pearce says jurors should have "no hesitation whatsoever" accepting the evidence of the Brazilian and German backpackers.

Pearce: "You should have no hesitation in accepting her as an honest witness and accurate and reliable historian..."

Pearce: "... of these horrific events she endured on the beach that day."

Pearce says accused's hammer attack, and conduct with 4WD, shows his intent was to murder the German - as charged.

Pearce: "(The German) is a demonstrably honest witness, reliable and accurate about the events that unfolded..."

Pearce: "... on the beach that day, the ordeal she endured."

Pearce: "This is a case where things are exactly what they seem."

 

[JudgeJudi]

Sean Fewster @SeanFewster · 4s
Pearce says defence's suggestion that things are "not what they seem" is just "a euphamism for dishonesty".

He says that "no matter how you try to dress it up", defence is suggesting they are "fabricating" their evidence.

Pearce: "(Defence is) suggesting they are both dishonest women who have fabricated a story about what happened to them on that beach."

"And that, having fabricated, they sat over there in the witness box and perpetrated a lying, untruthful act."

"That's the theory underlying this notion that things are not what they seem - that these women are liars."

 

[JudgeJudi]

Sean Fewster @SeanFewster · 8s
That they lied about a man who did nothing more than, out of the goodness of his heart, offered to drive them to Melbourne."

Pearce: "It's one thing to say it - it's another thing for it to be a reasonable possibility."

Pearce says defence "quite properly" put its competing version of events to each of the backpackers during cross-examination.

He says that includes the Brazilian taking off all her clothes, the accused putting sunscreen on her, and an argument about his cooking.

He says it also included the Brazilian running off into the "desolate" dunes, and German injuring herself during subsequent search.

Pearce: "These women were not having a bar of it."

 

[JudgeJudi]

Sean Fewster @SeanFewster · 1m
Pearce says the defence case cannot explain the women's numerous injuries, nor the amount of blood spilled.

However it is, he says, consistent with the evidence given by the women themselves - because they were truthful.

 

[JudgeJudi]

Sean Fewster @SeanFewster · 2m
Pearce says that, to accept defence version of #SaltCreek, the Brazilian would have to be "a consumate actress" putting on "a performance".

That "performance", he says, would have to have started back on the beach when she was rescued and continued into court.

He asks the jury if it "accords with common sense" that the Brazilian would seek to "hoodwink" witnesses, the court and the jury.

Pearce says the German was a "methodical and measured witness whose answers conveyed a clearness and clarity..."

"... that was no doubt reflected in the events on the beach that day as she had to managed the accused and her predicament".

Pearce: "(The German) was a woman who was, on the day, very determined to survive."

He suggests jury reject defence narrative about "poor old (accused) who offered to give them a ride to Melbourne" & is now being lied about.

 

[JudgeJudi]

Sean Fewster @SeanFewster · 7s
Pearce says the only time German's evidence wavered was when she recounted her fear of dying and never seeing parents again.

Pearce: "That was the only crack in that veneer of calmness, measured responses and clarity."

He says jurors might consider that "a little glimpse" into German, her state of mind and emotions.

Pearce reminds jury that Brazilian said German was bleeding when she untied her, before 4WD was used as battering ram.

He says defence version holds German was injured when she fell off the car - which hadn't yet happened by this stage.
[Excellent point to draw to the jury’s attention]

He says defence version can't explain German's bruises and injures that are consistent with being "mowed down".

Pearce: "The theory just crumbles. It can never have happened. It is utter nonsense."

 

[JudgeJudi]

Sean Fewster @SeanFewster · 50s
Pearce says falling off a car roof once can't explain four ragged wounds to different areas of a head.

Pearce: "The human head is not a tennis ball, ladies and gentlemen."

Pearce: "You don't just fall down, bounce up, fall down, bounce up, boing, boing, boing. We all know that."

 

[JudgeJudi]

Sean Fewster @SeanFewster · 46s
Pearce says defence case must be rejected as accused had chance to take "seriously injured" German for medical help and did not.

"The blood on her face wasn't dry. It was still pulsing from the tennis ball-sized lump on her head."

"He decided to take that disfigured, seriously injured woman back up the sand dunes and onto the beach."

"Her appearance was simply shocking, but he took her in the opposite direction to where medical help might have been available."

"I ask you to consider: why would he do that if the (defence version) was reasonably, possibly true?"

"If he'd done nothing wrong & she was just Calamity Jane & kept falling off, why not take her back to the roadhouse?"

 

[JudgeJudi]

Sean Fewster @SeanFewster · 33s
Pearce says accused sped past rescuers to hide what he had done, not because he was still looking for the Brazilian.

Pearce says, were he really looking, he simply could've asked: "Anyone seen a naked Brazilian sheila strutting around?"

 

[JudgeJudi]

Sean Fewster @SeanFewster · 56s
Pearce says the "frustrated" accused punched the Brazilian "to shut her up" and "make her compliant" to sexually assault her.

He says accused hit German with hammer "in heated, violent conflict" to "particularly vulnerable" body part, intending to kill.

Accused's subsequent driving, he says, also shows intent to kill - as he was trying to "mow her down".

 

[JudgeJudi]

Sean Fewster @SeanFewster · 6s
Pearce says the most compelling evidence about the German is the German herself.

"It's her, it's her evidence, it's the way she gave her evidence. It's the manner in which she gave it."

"If you're satisfied she's doing her best to tell you the truth, then the rest of the evidence is just window dressing."

Pearce turns to the German, sitting in the gallery. "She's a very impressive young woman. I commend her evidence to you."

 

[JudgeJudi]

Sean Fewster @SeanFewster · 30s
Pearce says both women, though very different, were compelling, impressive young women.

He says their conduct on the beach "reveals they're very brave young women".

He says their evidence in court showed them "doing their best to describe, to you, a harrowing ordeal".

"Sometimes, in life and in court, there are little mysteries. There are no mysteries here, because these women told you what happened."

Pearce closes his address with a metaphor - a "silly little phase" - that's been "rattling around" in his head.

Pearce: "The ducks line up."

"They all line up. They all line up in a row, it's a long row, and they all line up next to one another."

"The ducks line up and the prosecution case is simply overwhelming."

"Things are, now that we've heard the evidence and it's been challenged, exactly as they seem."

 

[JudgeJudi]

Sean Fewster @SeanFewster · 1m
The #SaltCreek trial will resume at 2.15pm for defence counsel's closing address

 

[MsAnais]

As ever, thank you for all your work here JJ eace:

 

[JudgeJudi]

Sean Fewster @SeanFewster · 16s
The #SaltCreek trial has resumed. Defence counsel Bill Boucaut SC will present his closing address to the jury.

 

[JudgeJudi]

Sean Fewster @SeanFewster · 6s
Boucaut tells jurors he won't beat around the bush and will get straight to the point.

Boucaut says jurors may well not approve of his client, nor his morals, but "this is not a court of morals, it's a court of law".

Boucaut: "You might seriously disapprove of quite a few things about him (but) that doesn't mean he's going to try to kill somebody."

Boucaut: "You are not here to judge this man's morality."

He says prosecution's "repetition" of the "horror" of the case "is a form of advocacy that does not help" in reaching a verdict.

Boucaut reminds jurors of the rights of an accused, that prosecutors must prove him guilty - not the other way around.

Boucaut: "If I say things in support of his case, I don't apologise for that."

 

[JudgeJudi]

Sean Fewster @SeanFewster · 2m
Boucaut says jury must approach evidence in "detached, emotionless" way "or this man will not get a fair trial".

Boucaut: "If the accused had rape, murder and mayhem on his mind, don't you think it's odd..."

"... he would take not one, but two, travelling companions with him? That fact alone, that he would take another person..."

"... who can help, who could be a witness, would send a warning to you that something is not quite right here."

Boucaut says jurors should also ask why, if rape was the plan, the accused would attempt it "just 20m or so" from the camp.

Boucaut says the man made no attempt to hide his identity before, during or after the alleged incident.

Boucaut: "That's another, further incredible oddity in this case."

 

[JudgeJudi]

Sean Fewster @SeanFewster · 15s
Boucaut says jurors might well find the whole trip "a bit creepy" and "sleazy it may be", but accused was not secretive about it.

Boucaut points out the size and age of his client compared to those of the Brazilian and German.

Boucaut: "If he wanted to rape, he would have. He's certainly big enough and strong enough".

Boucaut says the knife and bikini top were never recovered. "Where are these things?"

Boucaut says jurors may accept backpackers' account. That would make man's actions "despicable, reprehensible and criminal".

However, he stresses, it does not necessarily amount to a planned kidnapping. Could have been spontaneous assault.

He says if Brazilian was dressed "skimpily", man tried & failed to get her to "come across" & then assaulted her, that's a different crime.