Balcony fall: 1986 murder case may be used in court as precedent

A decades-old murder case where a woman fell to her death while fleeing her violent boyfriend could be ­relied upon in court proceedings against three men charged over the death of a teen who plunged from a Gold Coast balcony, legal sources say.

A DECADES-OLD murder case where a woman fell to her death while climbing out a sixth-floor window to escape her violent partner could be ­relied upon in court proceedings against three men charged over the death of a teen who plunged from a Gold Coast balcony, legal sources say.

Sydney tattooist Kim William Royall was convicted of the 1986 murder of his girlfriend Kelly Healey after a jury found the woman fell from a window while trying to escape the man who was attacking her.

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A NSW court determined the 22-year-old died during an act of “self-preservation” after Royall broke down the bathroom door and attacked her while she was in the shower.

Her blood was later found splattered throughout the Kings Cross flat and there was evidence she had been hit with a glass ashtray.

Cian English died over the weekend after falling from a Gold Coast balcony. Three men have been charged with murder.

After an appeal, the nation’s highest court upheld the Sydney tattooist’s murder conviction, finding it did not matter if Ms Healey’s death was caused “in a way which (Royall) did not precisely foresee”.

Lawyers have told The Courier-Mail that the unrelated case could be used as a precedent in proceedings against three men charged with murder over Hawthorne man Cian English’s death on the Glitter Strip at the weekend.

View Pacific Apartments, where the teen fell to his death. Picture: AAP/Richard Gosling

Veteran criminal lawyer Bill Potts said the legal principles from the Royall case apply where a victim felt they had “no alternative”, but to take the path that led to their death.

“Where a person feels they have no choice, but to go out a window, such as in Royall’s case, and they fall to their death, it involves criminality,” Mr Potts said.

The case was unsuccessfully used during the murder trial of Gold Coast playboy Gable Tostee, who was in 2016 acquitted of the death of New Zealand woman Warriena Wright.