Beheader Darren Ward Gale appeals murder conviction saying lawyer no good and jurors were asleep

Darren Gale has appealed his murder conviction for killing and beheading his flatmate in Ulverstone, saying his lawyer was no good and jurors fell asleep.

Victim Noel Joseph Ingham

A MAN who admitted cutting off his flatmate’s head is appealing his murder conviction.

Earlier this month, Darren Ward Gale was sentenced to 23 years in jail after a jury found him guilty of murdering 58-year-old Noel Joseph Ingham in the unit they shared in West Ulverstone.

Gale, 53, has now appealed that conviction

In a handwritten notice of appeal, Gale said he was appealing against the conviction on the grounds that his lawyer (Greg Richardson) had failed to defend him adequately, that the jury fell asleep during the trial, the prosecutor lead witnesses and that a jury member had spoken to police.

In a handwritten letter to The Mercury from Risdon Prison, Gale said he had been found guilty of a murder he “did not do.”

“There is a lot of things which did not come out in court . there is conspiracy and perverting the course of justice which I can prove,” he said in the letter.

When the jury delivered its guilty verdict, Gale who had stayed expressionless for most of his seven-week trial, shook his head and mouthed the word “bullshit.”

During the trial, in the Supreme Court in Burnie, the jury heard Gale decapitated Mr Ingham, buried his body in bushland, threw his head off a bridge and killed Mr Ingham’s two small dogs.

But when he took the stand, Gale said that while he did those things after Mr Ingham he died, he had not been responsible for his death.

Instead, he claimed, the older man hit his head on a fishtank in the lounge room.

In sentencing Justice Helen Wood said Gale “became attached” to living at Mr Ingham’s unit, which she said was more comfortable than the life Gale was used to living.

She said Gale wanted to exploit the situation and wanted to become Mr Ingham’s carer so he could receive a carer’s allowance.

Justice Wood said without Mr Ingham’s head — which has never been found — a specific cause of death could not be determined.

Gale will not be eligible to apply for parole until he has served 14 years of his sentence, which was backdated to November 2016.