Tungkillo in Adelaide Hills: Fencing dispute between two neighbours led to one fatally stabbed in heart
A neighbourly dispute between these two men escalated in bitterness until one stabbed the other in the heart. Now a jury must decide whether the incident was murder – or a justifiable homicide.
Law and Order
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A jury has been asked to decide whether a fatal stabbing that ended a bitter fencing dispute between two neighbours was murder – or a justifiable homicide.
Darren Lorke stood trial in the Supreme Court on Monday, accused of stabbing Kevin Skeyhill, 51, in the heart at their Tungkillo properties last September.
The court heard that, for months, the men had been involved in an escalating dispute over Mr Skeyhill’s stormwater run-off, which went onto Lorke’s lawn.
Jurors were told each man had dug up portions of the other’s property, and even had a physical scuffle over their chicken wire fence, in the lead-up to the stabbing.
Mark Norman SC, prosecuting, said those encounters had left an “angry” Lorke “prepared to strike, and strike repeatedly” to end the feud.
He said Lorke had not only armed himself with an air rifle and 18cm knife – both painted in camouflage – but also removed Mr Skeyhill’s security cameras in preparation.
“It’s no coincidence that those cameras went missing when they did,” he said.
“Nor (was it coincidence) that Lorke was outside so quickly, moving around in the dark, armed with his camouflage rifle and camouflage knife.
“He deliberately removed the cameras … whether in anticipation for a confrontation or another reason, he was going to make sure those cameras were not there that evening.
“Whether or not Lorke had made up his mind that he was going to attack, he was prepared to strike, and strike repeatedly, when the moment came.”
Lorke, 52, has pleaded not guilty to one count of murder.
Police and ambulance officers found Mr Skeyhill’s body on Lorke’s doorstep on September 13, 2017 – he had been dragged there from the fence line, 14m away.
He had sustained stab wounds to the back of his left shoulder, arm, head and forehead, and a fatal wound to the heart that sliced two ribs and notched a third.
Opening the trial, Mr Norman said there had long been tension between the neighbours.
“They say good fences make good neighbours … this was not a good fence by any stretch of the imagination,” he said.
“Their dividing fence was really just a series of posts and some chicken wire.”
He said that, five days before the stabbing, Lorke went onto Mr Skeyhill’s property as a trespasser and dug a long ditch to divert stormwater run-off.
Mr Skeyhill responded two days later by digging up part of Lorke’s lawn and throwing soil onto his roof and sun shade.
This sparked a confrontation in which Lorke “came off slightly worse”, suffering a “little cut” to his forehead.
Mr Norman said Mr Skeyhill subsequently became concerned Lorke had access to a firearm and set up floodlights and hidden cameras to monitor his movements.
He said Mr Skeyhill had alcohol, cannabis and methylamphetamine in his system when he and a friend returned to his home on September 13.
“(The friend) heard Mr Skeyhill say ‘the c--- is behind the house’ and go behind a bush on Lorke’s side of the dividing line, shouting and demanding to know what he’s up to,” he said.
“Mr Skeyhill switched on the light of his mobile phone … within a few seconds, he collapsed to the ground.”
Mr Norman said the friend called 000 – and so did Lorke, multiple times, claiming he had “been accosted by three blokes” who were “drunk as skunks” and “stalking” him.
“He told the 000 operator ‘yeah, I f---ing gave it to him’ and (the friend) ‘he shouldn’t have been on my f---ing property’,” he said.
He said Lorke would later tell police he had dropped the air rifle but “didn’t know” how the knife had come to be in his hand.
Greg Mead SC, for Lorke, told jurors there was “no dispute” the fatal wound had been caused by his client’s knife.
“The issue is whether this death was what lawyers call a justifiable homicide,” he said.
“At all times, Lorke was acting in self-defence or defence of his property, as he was entitled at law to do.”
The trial, before Auxiliary Justice Michael David and a jury, continues.
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