Daniel Gordon Bremner found guilty of murdering ‘frail’ housemate and stuffing him in wheelie bin

The verdict for the man who killed his “frail” pensioner housemate and stuffed his body into a wheelie bin came in quickly after a similarly rapid trial.

A man accused of murdering his housemate and stuffing his body in a wheelie bin – before it was found at Wingfield dump – has been found unanimously guilty of the crime.

After deliberating for just over two hours, a Supreme Court jury of four women and eight men found Daniel Gordon Bremner, 46, guilty of murder.

He had earlier pleaded guilty to a charge of manslaughter, but that plea had not been accepted and the murder trial began earlier this month.

As the verdict was read aloud on Monday, members of the public gallery could be heard to gasp and some were teary. Bremner did not appear to display any emotion.

Opening the trial, prosecutor Jim Pearce KC, had told the jury Bremner was found at the victim’s Hectorville unit, just a few hours after the decomposing body of the victim – who cannot be identified for legal reasons – was found among green waste at the Wingfield dump in December 2021.

“The cause of death was chest and head injuries sustained as a result of blunt force trauma, a sustained attack of that sort,” he said.

Daniel Gordon Bremner in custody in 2021. Picture: 7News

Mr Pearce had told the jury Bremner had inflicted “repeated blows” on the “frail” 53-year-old disability support pensioner.

He had told the jury the injuries were consistent with “either a punch or a kick or a stomp” and could not have been caused by a fall.

The jury were also told bloodstains were found throughout the unit and that bloodstained clothes containing DNA from both men was found in a recycling bin outside.

The green waste bin, which contained bloodstains, was collected at 12.26pm on December 21, 2021 and arrived at Wingfield about 2pm. The victim’s body was discovered when a worker noticed a “protruding” leg among the green waste just 10 minutes later.

The jury had been told Bremner had been captured on CCTV using the victim’s credit card to purchase goods, including groceries, cigarettes and alcohol on the day his body was discovered.

Police were called to the Wingfield Integrated Waste Services after a worker made the grim discovery. Picture: 7NEWS

It had also been told Bremner had claimed to his cellmate in 2022 that he had wanted to kill the victim for an unfounded belief that he was a pedophile and was “effectively waiting for his moment to do it”.

The jury had also heard that Bremner had, on multiple occasions, threatened to kill the victim.

Paul Charman, for Bremner, had told the jury his client should be acquitted of murder. He said given the victim’s frailty, it could not be determined which particular injury had caused his death.

“How many of them (the injuries) were falls? How many of them were blows?,” he had said in his closing address.

By its verdict, the jury rejected those assertions.

Bremner, who faces a mandatory life sentence, will next return to court for a pre-sentence hearing in April. A non-parole period will then be set.