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Judge tells jury to assess whether survivor is telling the truth in triple-murder trial
🇦🇺 Australia /Crime & Justice

Judge tells jury to assess whether survivor is telling the truth in triple-murder trial

From ABC Australia · () English

Translated from English and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

News Named sources In the courts
  • Jurors in Townsville Supreme Court are considering the verdict in the trial of Queensland grazier and coal miner Darryl Valroy Young, who denies three murders and one attempted murder.
  • Prosecutors say Ross Tighe witnessed the shootings and survived being shot, while the defence suggested he could have killed the others and wounded himself.
  • The judge told jurors to assess Tighe’s credibility and said accepting or rejecting Young’s alibi would not alone determine guilt.

The central question for the jury in a Queensland triple-murder trial is whether the man who says he survived the shooting is telling the truth.

Justice Christopher Johnstone told jurors in Townsville Supreme Court to assess the evidence of Ross Tighe, who said he saw Darryl Valroy Young shoot his family and then shot him. Tighe told the court that doctors left the projectile in his body.

murderer

— Anthony KimminsYoung’s defence lawyer suggested Ross Tighe could have been responsible for the killings.

Young, a 63-year-old grazier and coal miner, has pleaded not guilty to three murder charges and one charge of attempted murder. The bodies of married couple Mervyn and Maree Schwarz and Maree’s son, Graham Tighe, were found at the gate of Young’s Shannonvale Station at Bogie on August 4, 2022.

shot himself

— Anthony KimminsThe defence suggested Tighe may have caused his own gunshot wound.

The jury heard three weeks of evidence and two days of closing arguments before retiring on Wednesday. Defence lawyer Anthony Kimmins suggested Ross Tighe could be the “murderer” and might have “shot himself”. Prosecutor David Nardone dismissed that suggestion as a “fantasy”.

In his summing up, Justice Johnstone noted that the defence had not directly suggested during cross-examination that Tighe was lying. He also reminded jurors that a doctor believed Tighe would have died from blood loss or infection without medical treatment. The judge said that if jurors accepted Young’s alibi, they should find him not guilty, but rejecting the alibi would not necessarily prove guilt.

fantasy

— David NardoneThe prosecutor rejected the defence suggestion about Tighe’s alleged role.
About this summary

Originally published by ABC Australia in English. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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