Bobby Allan’s killers, Graeme Vickerstaff, Dean Welsh and Colin Booth face long jail sentences
The killing of Canberra tradie Bobby Allan was a ‘senseless act that entirely disregarded his right to feel safe in his own home’, a prosecutor has said in court.
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The “senseless” killing of Canberra tradie Bobby Allan left his family devastated and the three men responsible should all be handed long stints behind bars, a court has heard.
Mr Allan, 48, was bludgeoned to death in his own home by Graeme Vickerstaff, who belted him in the head with a baseball bat as fellow drug users Dean Phillip Welsh, and Colin Maxwell Booth stood by.
All three men have pleaded guilty to manslaughter.
Crown Prosecutor Rebecca Christensen told the ACT Supreme Court on Thursday Vickerstaff, 47, was the ringleader in the killing, and that his “moral culpability is the highest” of the trio.
Ms Christensen said Vickerstaff’s “blatant lies” to police immediately after the killing showed he was not remorseful for what he had done.
She said the December 2017 killing of Mr Allan was made worse because it was in his own home, where he was entitled to feel safe.
“This was an offence that was committed on a man in his own home, early on a Sunday morning,” she said.
“His killing was a senseless act that entirely disregarded his right to feel safe in his own home.
“The offenders have callously disregarded his welfare and in all of the circumstances … nothing less than significant periods of imprisonment are warranted.”
Barrister James Moffett, for Welsh, 49, said his client’s motivation for going to the house was “pure and simple, and that was to acquire illicit substances”.
He said there was no evidence Welsh knew Vickerstaff would spray a can of automotive degreaser in Mr Allan’s face when he came to the door, blinding him, before belting him with the bat.
Ms Christensen said Welsh was responsible for taking the bloody baseball bat and hiding it in the Mitsubishi Lancer the group abandoned in a nearby street.
The court heard Booth, 35, had written a letter of apology saying he wanted to “to give Bobby Allan’s family some closure and to get this off my chest”.
A court-appointed report writer described Booth as having an “extensive and serious criminal history”.
Justice David Mossop will sentence the Vickerstaff, Welsh and Booth on Tuesday.