Dane McLennan manslaughter trial: Supreme Court jury delivers verdict in Wycheproof one-punch case

A Wycheproof electrician accused of one-punch killing a family friend has learned his fate.

Wycheproof electrician Dane McLennan has been found not guilty of the one-punch killing of his family friend and golfing mate, John Durie.

Mr McLennan left the Shepparton Supreme Court on Monday afternoon a free man, cleared of wrongdoing.

Monday’s verdict came after the jury began their deliberations on Friday morning.

Mr McLennan, 28, was charged with manslaughter after hitting 56-year-old Mr Durie — known as “Bucket” — in the head during a scuffle at the Wycheproof Golf Club in 2019.

The allegation against McLennan was always a close run thing.

Mr Durie’s widow, Jan, told the Herald Sun last year he was a “nice young fella” who had struggled to come to terms with what had happened, and defence lawyers told the jury he was not the sort of bloke who would have king hit Mr Durie in a rage.

Dane McLennan, 28, was charged with the one-punch manslaughter of John Durie, 56, in their hometown of Wycheproof in August 2019.

John Durie, 56, never regained consciousness after collapsing when Mr McLennan hit him.

Until he hit Mr Durie, Mr McLennan had never thrown a punch before in his life, even playing football for Clarendon College in Ballarat and for the Wycheproof Narraport Football Club.

Mr McLennan’s lawyers argued he was defending himself against the bigger, stronger Mr Durie, who had escalated a drunken “playfight” by knocking the wind out of Mr McLennan with a kick or a punch to his guts, and who had been trying to wrestle him to the ground.

Defence lawyers also argued that the ruptured artery deep inside Mr Durie’s brain was more likely to have been a result of a massive brain haemorrhage caused by his high blood pressure, his poor health, his family history of similar haemorrhage, the alcohol he had drunk that day, and the physical stress of the scuffle with Mr McLennan.

The jury’s not guilty verdict means they accepted at least one of those defences.

John Durie holding his granddaughter, Grace.

John Durie (centre, back row) with his Wycheproof Narraport Cricket Club team.

Mr McLennan told police in the hours after Mr Durie died that the two were constantly “shit-stirring” each other.

“We always have a lot of banter, me and John,” he said.

“He was kind of overpowering me and I have … broken free.

“I must have got loose, and I’ve hit him once, and he was unconscious.

“That’s all I remember, that’s all that happened.

“I was expecting him to come back-to … and he hasn’t.”

The Durie and McLennan families are among the most respected in the district, and live a short distance from each other in Wycheproof, a town of just over 600.

Mr Durie is remembered as a loving husband, father and grandfather, a hard working shearer, and a passionate sportsman.