Danny Deacon guilty of manslaughter, not murder, lawyer tells Supreme Court jury trial

SELF-described killer Danny Deacon should be found not guilty of murder because his victim and partner, Carlie Sinclair, provoked him with “vicious barbs” the night she died, his lawyer says

Danny Deacon during an interview with Channel Nine Darwin. Picture: Nine News Darwin/NT Supreme Court

SELF-described killer Danny Deacon should be found not guilty of murder because his victim and partner, Carlie Sinclair, provoked him with “vicious barbs” the night she died, his lawyer says.

In his closing address to the jury, defence lawyer Jon Tippett QC said Deacon should instead be found guilty of manslaughter, because the Crown had not disproved provocation beyond a reasonable doubt.

“(It’s) the highest standard of proof in our legal system, if not any legal system,” he said.

“It’s not murder, because the circumstances are such that the law takes into account human frailties and reduces murder to manslaughter.

“This is not a simple case. Human beings are not simple, we are complicated.”

Mr Tippett said Deacon had been dishonest in the months after he killed Ms Sinclair, but had now come clean.

“The problem about lies is that you tell a lie and you become trapped by those lies ... once you start you really can’t afford to stop.”

He said Deacon’s evidence to the trial on Wednesday should be believed, and different accounts given to undercover police should be rejected as “big noting” himself.

By contrast, Crown Prosecutor Mary Chalmers told the jury in her closing address on Wednesday that what Deacon told the undercover police was “Danny Deacon unscripted” and “the real Danny Deacon”.

Mr Tippett also asked why detectives had not questioned Deacon more over Ms Sinclair’s actions and words before he killed her.

He said a more thorough interview would have fleshed out Deacon’s provocation defence from the beginning.

“(Police are) really good at what they do and they knew exactly what they were doing,” he said. He also said investigators took part in “subterfuge”.

“Here we’re not playing subterfuge or games, we’re dealing with a man’s life ... he did something very wrong and deserves to be punished, but not for something he didn’t do,” Mr Tippett said.

Mr Tippett said the jury should not let their sympathy for Ms Sinclair or her family get in the way of an objective analysis of the evidence.

“They’ve been through hell, not knowing where Ms Sinclair was for a long time ... they deserve your sympathy and no doubt they’ll get it,” he said.

“In relation to this case, sympathy can’t be a part of it, because it’s not evidence, it’s (just) feelings that we have.”

Deacon has admitted to digging a bush grave in Berry Springs “about a month” before he killed Ms Sinclair in June 2013.

He buried her the day after he killed her.

Supreme Court Justice Peter Barr is expected to address the jury today before sending them out to deliberate a verdict.