Jamie Cust guilty of manslaughter over stabbing of workmate Jesus Bebita

A man on trial for killing his former workmate has learned his fate after claiming he was sexually assaulted before stabbing his friend 49 times.

A 23-year-old man has been found guilty of manslaughter over the stabbing death of a former workmate he said “tried to rape” him after a night drinking together.

Jamie Cust pleaded not guilty to murder over the December 2018 killing of Jesus Bebita in the NSW Hunter Valley town of Scone.

Mr Cust admitted to killing the 41-year-old but argued he was provoked by the alleged sexual assault and guilty of the lesser charge of manslaughter.

He faced a jury trial in the Supreme Court at Newcastle, which heard the two men became friends after working together at Scone slaughterhouse JBS Meatworks in 2018 before Mr Cust moved to Sydney.

On a visit back to the Hunter Valley in December that year, Mr Cust spent a night drinking with Bebita at the older man’s two-bedroom home.

He called his stepfather Vivian Price sounding “hysterical” and asking for a lift home at 4.15am on December 18, the court heard.

Mr Cust argued he was under ‘extreme provocation’ when he killed Jesus Bebita. Picture: Facebook

When Mr Price arrived, the jury heard, Mr Cust was covered in blood and said, “I stabbed him because he tried to rape me.

“I woke up, my pants were down and he was rubbing his d--k on me.”

Mr Cust then went to police – after some convincing from Mr Price – and told them the same story about the alleged sexual assault.

Officers went to Bebita’s house to discover the Philippine national dead in a pool of blood on his bathroom floor.

The only issue at trial was whether Mr Cust was under “extreme provocation” when he stabbed Bebita 49 times.

A jury took five hours to decide he was, delivering verdicts of not guilty of murder but guilty of manslaughter on Monday afternoon.

Mr Cust’s barrister, Paul Rosser QC, had argued the 23-year-old had acted in a frenzy after he was himself subject to violence.

“The accused’s case is that he found himself the subject of a sexual assault, a serious sexual assault,” the barrister said.

“The accused’s case is he puts it in terms of ‘I freaked out’. You’ve got clear evidence that he lost control of himself.”

He will be sentenced in October.

Originally published as Jamie Cust guilty of manslaughter over stabbing of workmate Jesus Bebita