Supreme Court closing submissions finishes in Reece Watherston trial

The Reece Watherston trial finishes with the prosecution portraying him as a young man with ‘mob mentality’ and his barrister describing his as a guilt-racked victim of an unprovoked assault.

Astonishing quantities of alcohol, drugs and testosterone were to blame for an all out brawl on Hindley St which left Jack Hanley lying dead on the pavement, the Supreme Court has heard.

In closing submissions to a case which has lasted almost two weeks and involved more than a dozen witnesses, barristers for manslaughter accused Reece Watherston, 21, and the prosecution outlined their arguments.

Watherston, on trial for the alleged manslaughter of Mr Hanley, 22, on December 10, 2017, was described as both a young man with a mob mentality and a guilt-racked target of an unprovoked attack.

Prosecutor Mark Norman QC said the incident was a “depressingly similar situation”.

“For a pack of young males with a mob mentality full of drink and drugs and testosterone, far too willing to settle any perceived insult with their fists,” he said.

“We suggest that the evidence overwhelmingly suggests the accused’s friends were egging on the fight, celebrating the knockout and taunting (Mr Hanley’s friends) even as (he) lay dying on the ground.”

Watherston’s counsel, Jane Powell, told Justice Anne Bampton that her client had been acting in self-defence when he punched Mr Hanley.

Reece Watherston and Jack Hanley.

“He had been attacked in a way that led him to believe that self-defence was necessary for his protection from harm” she said.

“He was not making threats, he was not posturing or shaping up or behaving in any way that could have demonstrated his intent to start or join the fight.”

To emphasise Watherston’s argument that he was intimidated by the size of Mr Hanley and his friends, Ms Powell listed the height, weight and age of each of her client’s friends that night. Ms Powell said once Watherston walked away from the fight he disappeared “into the dark shadows of the city to escape police notice”.

“He waited for a brief time at the small TAFE courtyard contemplating the horrible events that had just transpired and tried to collect himself before getting up to leave,” she said.

“The video taken in the taxi shows a dishevelled and absolutely shell-shocked young man.

“His conductwas that of a 20-ear-old man who it goes without saying had never experienced anything like what had just happened or anything close.

“His response was confusion, fear, disbelief and overwhelming sadness.”

Justice Bampton will hand down her verdict at a later date.