Sentencing sequel to fatality

Press, 31 March 1989, Page 12

Sentencing sequel to fatality

Two men who were originally charged with manslaughter arising from a man’s death outside a party were sentenced yesterday on assault charges on which they had faced trial.

In the District Court yesterday, Judge Erber sentenced Nicholas David Cunningham, aged 20, an apprentice panelbeater, to nine months imprisonment, on a charge of asaulting Mark Robin Adair, aged 21, with intent to injure him. Greg Michael Bell, aged 19, an apprentice plumber, was sentenced to five months periodic detention on a charge of assaulting Mr Adair. Both defendants at their trial earlier this month had denied joint charges of assaulting Mr Adair with intent to injure, or alternatively with assaulting him. The jury had found Cunningham guilty of the major charge, and Bell guilty of the lesser count They had been remanded to yesterday Mr counsel’s submissions on the penalty and for sentence.

Evidence at the trial was that the defendants were seen to punch Mr Adair after he had remonstrated with another man who took a bottle of beer from the house where the party was held, in Whitby Street, Burnside, in the early morning of July 10, last year.

Mr Adair fell to the roadway stiking the back of his head. He again hit his head on a concrete kerbing when he fell backwards while being assisted into a sitting position while unconscious. The defendants were originally charged with manslaughter, but were committed for trial on the assault charges. This was because a post mortem examination could not disclose conclusively that the injuries which Mr Adair suffered when he was first struck in the street were the injuries which caused his death.

Mr Brian Callaghan appeared for Cunningham and Mr Nigel Hampton for Bell. Mr David Saunders represented the Crown at the trial.