Manunda manslaughter trial of Brendon Woolla told of alleged phone call admission
The man accused of manslaughter of a homeless woman has pleaded not guilty after allegedly answering “yep” when his brother asked him if he had “done it,” a court has been told.
A man accused of manslaughter after his partner died near a Manunda high school has pleaded not guilty, after allegedly answering “yep” when his brother asked him if he had “done it” during a phone call.
But Brendon Woolla’s defence counsel will argue the cause of his partner Anita Wolmby’s death was unclear with medical experts expected to tell the Cairns Supreme Court of the victim’s multiple health issues.
Ms Wolmby, 47, died at a Eureka St, Manunda unit on April 8, 2022 which was an empty residence where the pair had been squatting.
The trial before Justice Henry began on Wednesday with Crown prosecutor Monique Sheppard telling the jury it should expect to hear from about 30 witnesses.
Ms Sheppard began her opening address detailing a post-arrest phone call Mr Woolla made to his younger brother in Aurukun while in custody.
“Did you done it?
“Yep – that was Brendon Woolla’s answer to his younger brother’s question,” Ms Sheppard said.
Ms Sheppard told the court Mr Woolla and Ms Wolmby on the night of April 7, 2022 had been drinking with friends and family at a Fallon St, Manunda address, about 100m from where the couple were staying.
She said the witnesses would say the pair arrived in good spirits and without injury, but left after midnight when Mr Woolla had allegedly been arguing with guests including the now deceased.
The jury was then shown CCTV footage from a Trinity Bay State High School camera pointed toward Eureka St, with Ms Sheppard telling the court upon “zooming in” to the footage, two figures could be seen walking in the direction of the unit who were later involved in an altercation before moving inside about 1.45am.
Defence barrister Rachelle Logan said it was not disputed Mr Woolla and Ms Wolmby were the figures in the footage.
The court was told about 5.10am on the morning of April 8, Mr Woolla went in the direction of a nearby service station, back to the unit, and then again ran to the service station.
There he had asked the attendant to call ambulance and also managed to approach a refuelling police vehicle and asked officers to follow him back to the unit.
Ms Sheppard said the first responders arrived to find Ms Wolmby unconscious, without a pulse and wet, before an officer began CPR with paramedics declaring her dead about 6.20am.
She said the forensic pathologist in a post-mortem identified large lacerations to Ms Wolmby’s skull, but conceded the Crown did not know exactly how the injuries were caused.
“The case against the defendant is what you’ll hear referred to as a circumstantial one,” she said.
“There will be no witness presented during this trial to say that the defendant punched or kicked or in any way struck Ms Wolmby at a precise time and that this assault caused her death. Rather, the Crown relies on pieces of evidence which you will place together that lead to the only conclusion that the defendant inflicted those injuries … and that it was those injuries that were the substantial or significant cause of her death.”
Ms Sheppard said while the forensic pathologist had nominated the injuries to Ms Wolmby’s head as her cause of death he couldn’t exclude the contribution of alcohol or a coronary artery rupture.
Ms Logan said the defence’s case would ask the jury to consider “all the interpretations” of the CCTV footage and its quality and whether the injuries to Ms Wolmby’s head were the cause of death.
“When you listen to the medical evidence, listen to the doubts that will be expressed about the what the actual cause of death was – can we ever know how Ms Wolmby died,” Ms Logan said to the jury.
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Originally published as Manunda manslaughter trial of Brendon Woolla told of alleged phone call admission
