Friend says ‘just a mate chilling out’ when Kyam Broadby visited him after Nathaniel Wailu’s death

A witness at a murder trial in Cairns has admitted lying to police about meeting with the accused the morning after an alleged assault, saying the two mates watched TV and chilled out.

A WITNESS at Kyam Broadby’s murder trial on Friday admitted lying to police on the morning after the alleged assault of Nathaniel Wailu. Wailu died six days later, and Broadby has pleaded not guilty to murder in Cairns Supreme Court.

Show worker Ryder Pellick, of Braybrook, Victoria, told the court that Broadby, with whom he had been friends for a long time, came around to Pellick’s caravan around 9am or 10am on the day after the alleged murder.

Pellick told the court they watched television for a period, and it was “just a mate chilling out”.

Tasmanian man Kyam Keith Broadby has been charged with murder. Picture: Facebook

Later that morning Pellick went out and police asked him if Broadby had been at his caravan and he told them he had not.

Pellick told the court when he returned to the caravan he shaved Broadby’s head.

“It was a good excuse to get rid of that rat’s tail,” he told the court.

The court was shown photographs of human hair that had been bagged up in a wheelie bin in the campground.

‘A bit of drama’

Pellick told the court he later drove Broadby and “Zack” to Cairns, because “(Broadby) said there had been a bit of drama”.

He said he had a bad memory and could not remember conversations he had with Broadby.

He told the court they did not discuss with Broadby what the “drama” was, but he took Broadby to Cairns police station.

Further witnesses testified to an argument that erupted on the evening of the alleged murder, with shouting, swearing and words to the effect of “stay away from my woman”.

Nathaniel Wailu died in hospital six days after the alleged assault in Mareeba on July 10, 2019. Picture: Facebook

Witness Claire Brierly, who was camping by the edge of the campground with her family, said she heard a threat of a shotgun and heard a male voice say, “Stop or I will shoot you,” followed by a thump. She immediately called triple 0.

Witness Barry Darlow told the court he went to bed in his caravan around 10.45pm. He testified he heard two or three thuds and two male voices outside his caravan.

That was followed by a man’s breathing outside his van door. He called a friend who was camping nearby and his friend told him not to get out of his van or he would stand on a man’s head.

Struggling to breathe

“I could hear him breathing through the door, you could hear him struggling to breathe,” he told the court.

“You wouldn’t have recognised him, there was blood all over his face.”

Show worker Samuel Evans gave evidence that he had known Broadby since Broadby “was a young kid in Tasmania”.

Evans told the court he was setting up for the Cairns Show when he received texts from Broadby asking Evans to bring his car, and that he (Broadby) did not “do it”.

Evans said he did not respond to any of the texts.

The trial before Justice Susan Brown continues next week.

Originally published as Friend says ‘just a mate chilling out’ when Kyam Broadby visited him after Nathaniel Wailu’s death