John Peros assault accuser ‘threw first punch’

The British tradesman who accused John Peros of viciously beating him was trying to save his job and his work visa after throwing the first punch, Mr Peros’ lawyer told a Perth court.

John Peros. Picture: Daryl Wright

The British tradesman who accused John Peros of viciously beating him on a Pilbara mine site was trying to save his job and his work visa after provoking a fight and throwing the first punch, Mr Peros’ lawyer told a Perth court.

Industrial mechanic Mr Peros, 40, faced trial in the Central Law Courts in Perth on Monday and Tuesday for an allegedly unlawful attack on a work colleague on June 9, 2020, two months before a coroner found he stabbed his former girlfriend Shandee Blackburn to death in 2013.

A jury found Mr Peros not guilty of killing Blackburn in 2017 and Mr Peros has maintained his innocence. Blackburn’s death is the subject of The Australian’s podcast Shandee’s Story.

In his assault trial on Tuesday, Mr Peros acknowledged he repeatedly punched contract fitter Alexander Gell, including in the face, but said it was a fight Mr Gell started by striking him in the head as he worked on an excavator.

Mr Gell denies he hit Mr Peros at any stage, saying he put his hands over his face to protect himself once the attack started, tried to push Mr Peros away and tried to escape down a narrow passageway. A supervisor who heard screaming said he found Mr Peros punching Mr Gell as the latter used his hands to try to protect himself. Troy Verden said Mr Gell was yelling “Please help, he’s going to kill me”.

Mr Peros lost his job over the incident after his then employer, BHP, carried out an investigation that included a recorded interview with Mr Verden.

During Mr Peros’s evidence on Tuesday, the court heard that in the moments after Mr Verden rushed towards him and Mr Gell to stand between them, ending the violence, Mr Peros looked at Mr Gell. The prosecutor, Senior Constable Shane White, asked Mr Peros: “What did you see?”

Mr Peros: “An ugly face.”

Constable White: “Ugly as in damaged?”

Mr Peros: “Yeah. Definitely not kissing material at that point.”

Mr Peros was represented in the magistrate’s court in Perth by Craig Eberhardt KC, the lawyer who successfully defended him when he was on trial for murder five years ago.

Mr Peros told the court on Tuesday that he and Mr Gell had a fight in which they both landed blows on each other.

The court heard Mr Peros sustained a cut above one eyebrow and a bruise on his left elbow.

Emergency department doctor Joseph Odeke earlier read from hospital notes that showed Mr Gell’s injuries included a fractured nose, black right eye, bruise on the back of his head and a cut to his left eyebrow.

Dr Odeke descried these injuries as minor to moderate, adding they were injuries that would have required some excessive force.

Mr Eberhardt told the court Mr Gell was an unreliable witness in part because he had denied provoking Mr Peros by telling him “I hope your family dies”.

He pointed to the evidence of Mr Verden, who said Mr Gell had told him he said that to Mr Peros.

Mr Eberhardt also argued that Mr Gell was motivated to portray himself as the victim of an attack rather than the instigator of a fight because that would save his job.

Had Mr Gell been found to have provoked Mr Peros then willingly participated in a fight, he would not only have lost his employment but the work visa that allowed him to stay in Australia.

The court heard the pair had disagreed a day before the incident when Mr Gell watched a video on his phone of Black Lives Matters protesters attacking police and remarked that it was wrong.

In his evidence, Mr Gell said Mr Peros had replied: “All police officers should be stabbed and shot”. Mr Gell then called him a moron.

In his evidence, Mr Peros denied those were his words. “I said words to the effect, what did I say ... I hope the police die for taking another man’s life,” he said.

Mr Eberhardt presented magistrate Andrew Maughan with a written copy of his closing submissions and in his closing remarks he read out High Court references and a quote from German philosopher Nietzsche

Mr Maughan has reserved his decision until December 9.