Peniola Liu takes witness stand in Alex Ollson’s murder trial in Cairns Supreme Court

When the man accused of murdering Alex Ollson in Innisfail realised he had hurt him badly, he told the court he went home with his partner and prayed for him.

When the man accused of murdering Alex Ollson in Innisfail realised he had hurt him badly, he told the court he went home with his partner and prayed for him.

The last witness to give evidence in the Alex Ollson murder trial in Cairns on Tuesday afternoon was the defendant, Peniola Liu.

His defence counsel, Michael Dalton, asked Mr Liu several times through a Tongan interpreter if Mr Liu had intended to kill Mr Ollson, to which Mr Liu replied “No”.

Mr Dalton also asked Mr Liu several times whether he intended to “really, really hurt” Mr Ollson, to which Mr Liu also replied “No”.

Mr Liu stands accused of murdering Alex Ollson in the early hours of Saturday, December 19, 2020, at an Innisfail taxi rank.

He has pleaded not guilty to murder but guilty to manslaughter.

Alleged insults

Mr Liu testified that outside the Crown Hotel, where they had been drinking, he heard Mr Ollson call his partner Kirsty “a big hole”.

Through the interpreter he testified that those words implied that Mr Ollson was calling her a “tramp” or a “slut”.

The Crown Hotel at Innisfail, where Mr Liu and Mr Ollson were drinking that night.

He told the court that made him feel “sad and angry”, and he approached Mr Ollson at the taxi rank.

“First I wanted to ask Alex why he said that to Kirsty, second, I wanted to teach him not to disrespect the ladies,” he told the court.

He testified that Mr Ollson told him to “f*** off”.

“I was so angry and I punched him,” he told the court.

“When you hit Mr Ollson what were you trying to do?” Mr Dalton asked.

“I was punching him with the intention for him to fall down on the ground.”

He unleashed a flurry of punches, the last of which caused him to fall down and hit his head on a metal grate.

Evidence of the likely fatal blow

Dr Paul Botterill, specialist medical pathologist based at Cairns Hospital, told the court earlier in the day that the last blow was the one most likely to have resulted in the fatal brain injury, although any of the punches could have done it. The assault was captured on CCTV outside the taxi rank.

Mr Dalton told jurors that Mr Liu wanted to teach Mr Ollson a lesson for being disrespectful and to knock him down, but not to kill him.

Mr Liu told the court he did not think he had hurt Mr Ollson, and “the other guy” – one of the witnesses – was telling him to go.

He told the court he drove back to the taxi rank later, realising he had injured Mr Ollson.

“I was terrified and wanted to see if the guy was okay,” he said.

He told the court he saw an ambulance at the taxi rank and he went home where and he and his partner sat outside and prayed.

He said he then called his mother and asked her to pray for the man.

He told the court he lay down with his son until the police arrived.

In tears in the witness box

A murder trial witness broke down in tears on Tuesday morning as she took the stand, testifying to events that led to the 2020 death of father-of-two Alex Ollson.

Peniola Liu, 32, is standing trial for the murder of Mr Ollson, who died early on the morning of Saturday, December 19, 2020 after Mr Liu assaulted him in Innisfail.

At the beginning of the trial Mr Liu pleaded not guilty to murder but guilty to manslaughter.

Witness Rebecca O'Donnell told the Cairns Supreme Court she had been drinking at the Crown Hotel in Innisfail that night, and had left with her husband to go to the taxi rank around the corner.

“I can remember Peni standing with Alex, and then Alex … Alex being hit,” she told the court.

Hit again and again

“He was hit again and he started trying to get up and he was hit again and that was when he fell on the ground and hit his head,” she said.

She testified she did not hear any conversation between them.

Her husband Mervin O’Donnell told the court he believed that the two were having an altercation because of their body language and body reactions. He testified to the same sequence of events.

Alex Ollson, 28, died during a fatal assault at the Edith Street taxi rank in Innisfail

Mr O’Donnell said that after Mr Ollson hit his head, “his eyes were not in a good way. I’m no doctor but it looked like a seizure, what his eyes were doing and his body.

“I said to Peni, ‘enough, that’s it’.”

Also taking the witness stand on the second day of the trial was Dr Paul Botterill, a medical practitioner and a specialist medical pathologist, based at Cairns Hospital.

He conducted the autopsy on Mr Ollson on December 21, and testified to the number of injuries on Mr Ollson’s body.

Bleeding on the brain

He told the court Mr Ollson had suffered bleeding on the brain and that his brain appeared to be swollen.

He gave Mr Ollson’s cause of death as blunt force head injury, which had caused sub-arachnoid haemorrhage.

The CCTV footage of the assault was replayed and Crown prosecutor Nathan Crane paused it and asked Dr Botterill after each blow if it could have caused the fatal injury.

He replied yes to each punch, although his opinion was that the last of the blows, when Mr Ollson fell and hit his head on the ground, was the most likely to have resulted in the brain injury.

The accused, Peniola Liu, will take the witness stand with the assistance of a Tongan interpreter.

The trial is proceeding before Chief Justice Helen Bowskill.

Originally published as Peniola Liu takes witness stand in Alex Ollson’s murder trial in Cairns Supreme Court