Jury finds Douglas Thompson guilty of punching man at his remote Territory home

A jury has delivered a guilty verdict for a Top End man who punched a guest in the face after he refused to leave his ‘middle-of-nowhere’ property at midnight.

A jury has found Douglas Thompson guilty of unlawfully causing serious harm after breaking the jaw of a man in September 2021. Picture: Supplied.

A man who broke the jaw of a guest who refused to leave his remote Territory home has been found guilty of unlawfully causing serious harm.

After a short deliberation, the jury returned the unanimous verdict on Thursday, convicting Douglas Thompson, 27, over the incident.

The court heard three people unknown to Thompson had been invited to his Marrakai home by his stepmother on September 7, 2021.

After some verbal altercations and repeated requests for the newcomers to leave the “middle-of-nowhere” property late at night, Thompson punched his victim in the head, fracturing his jaw.

The court head Douglas Thompson had been acting ‘angry and aggressive’ on the night of the assault. Picture: Supplied.

Crown prosecutor Marty Aust described it as an unprovoked “king hit”, telling the jury Thompson had been acting “angry and aggressive” throughout the night.

“He wasn’t making a reasoned decision about anything at all, at any time, ever,” he said.

Mr Aust said the victim had been standing alone, smoking a cigarette outside at about midnight when Thompson came down the stairs behind him.

“He saw the fist in the periphery coming toward his left jaw, then felt massive contact and ‘realised straight away I’d taken a lot of damage to my face’,” he said.

Mr Aust said Thompson’s stepmother had brought the three guests, a man and two women, back to the home because she was “terrified” of Thompson and “she had to go in desperation to get assistance”.

“They were in the wrong place at the wrong time and they couldn’t do anything about it,” he said.

Douglas Thompson.

One of the witnesses had testified the victim had been walking towards Thompson in a threatening way but Mr Aust dismissed her version of events as “complete rubbish”.

“You might imagine her to be in a very difficult situation given her connection with the accused, but she’s the only witness in this entire trial that creates any possibility that there was a need for self-defence,” he said.

Thompson will return to court for sentencing at a later date.

Man on trial for breaking jaw of guest who ‘refused to leave’

A jury will decide whether a Top End man was acting in self-defence when he broke a visitor’s jaw at his remote Marrakai home.

In closing submissions at Douglas Thompson’s Supreme Court trial on Thursday, Crown prosecutor Marty Aust told the jury the 27-year-old had been “a ticking time bomb”.

“He was out of control, he was going to wreak havoc and he did,” he said.

Douglas Thompson stood trial in the Supreme Court over the September 2021 attack. Picture: Supplied.

The court heard two women and a man unknown to Thompson had been invited to the rural property on September 7, 2021 before being asked to leave, with Thompson then punching the man in the face at about midnight.

Conflicting witness testimonies about what happened in the lead-up to the alleged assault were the focus of closing submissions on Thursday.

Mr Aust said Thompson had been “angry and aggressive from the get go” towards guests that had “every right to be there”.

“It’s dark, there’s wildlife, it’s a 200m driveway to a dirt road, it’s in the middle of nowhere, it’s just not safe to leave,” he said.

The Crown alleged the victim had been standing out the front of the home smoking a cigarette when Thompson came from behind and punched him once or twice in the face.

“He walked up and king hit him unaware … we all know that one punch can kill,” Mr Aust said.

While Mr Aust asked the jury to disregard witness testimony he described as “complete fabricated rubbish”, defence lawyer Nicholas Goodfellow argued the inconsistencies proved the weakness of the Crown case.

“The only clear, unambiguous account of what happened outside comes from (one woman), and that’s that Thompson was acting in self-defence,” Mr Goodfellow said.

Mr Goodfellow said the other man had repeatedly refused to leave and had stood in a doorway blocking people in the kitchen before finally starting to depart, but had turned around at the fence and “aggressively approached” Thompson with clenched fists.

“(Thompson) did what he believed was necessary and justified to protect himself, he did what a reasonable person would have done in that circumstance – one punch, nothing more.”

Other witness accounts included recollections of a car with smashed windows, cleaning up glass, shouting, and one woman claiming she needed “protection”.

Thompson has pleaded not guilty to one count of unlawfully causing serious harm with the jury due to retire to consider its verdict on Thursday afternoon or Friday morning.