Craig Ross Beauchamp successfully appeals to have stabbing convictions set aside, charges to be retried

A Toowooomba man found guilty of stabbing his half-brother during a fight in 2020, has been successful in appealing against the convictions and will be re-tried.

The Court of Appeal has ruled to set aside the convictions and order the retrial of a man found guilty of stabbing his half-brother during a violent altercation in a Toowoomba home in 2020.

After an appeal hearing in Brisbane on February 18 this year, three justices ruled last week that the judge presiding over the 2021 trial of Craig Ross Beauchamp failed to give the jury proper instructions regarding evidence given.

On June 1, 2021, Beauchamp was convicted of two counts of unlawful wounding as a result of a struggle between himself and his half-brother Matthew Kahler on June 27, 2020, and sentenced to three and a half years jail.

Craig Ross Beauchamp is due to face retrial on two counts of unlawful wounding after he successfully appealed against a previous conviction.

In summing up the evidence heard during the three-day trial last year, Justice Philip McMurdo said Mr Kahler had not long been released from a four month stint behind bars when he spent the night at the house of his former long-term partner on June 16, 2020 before being asked to leave.

Mr Kahler went to stay at his parents’ house, where Beauchamp lived, and the pair immediately began arguing.

The court was told over the next few days Mr Kahler sent 11 text messages to Beauchamp, “threatening an assault or even death”.

On June 27, Mr Kahler arrived at his ex-girlfriend’s home and despite being denied entry pushed his way inside to find Beauchamp in a bathroom, to which Mr Kahler said “I knew it, you’d be here”.

Mr Kahler gave evidence that Beauchamp then stabbed him in the stomach, and a fight broke out which ended with Mr Kahler on top of Beauchamp “choking him out”.

At the trial, Justice McMurdo said Beauchamp didn’t give evidence, but his version of events was briefly given to a police officer who attended the scene, where he said he had a knife at the time of the incident and threatened to stab Mr Kahler but “he ran at me, I didn’t actually stab him, he just got cut”.

Justice McMurdo, as well as Justice Philip Morrison and Justice Declan Kelly, found the jury should have been directed to not use Beauchamp’s right to silence in any way which was adverse to him.

“The trial judge gave the usual directions about a defendant who has not given evidence,” Justice McMurdo said.

“However he did not give a similar direction about (Beauchamp’s) unwillingness to be formally interviewed by police.

“In my respectful view, such direction should have been given.”

As a result, the Court of Appeal allowed Beauchamp’s appeal against the convictions, which were set aside, with the 36-year-old ordered to be retried on the two counts.

No date has yet been set for the retrial.