R .v. EZOLD [2002] NSWSC 129

New South Wales Supreme Court

CITATION : R .v. EZOLD [2002] NSWSC 129 FILE NUMBER(S) : SC 70017/01 HEARING DATE(S) : 3rd December 2001 - 6th December 2001, 10th December 2001 - 14th December 2001, 17th December 2001 JUDGMENT DATE : 20 February 2002

PARTIES : Regina Daniel James EZOLD JUDGMENT OF : Barr J at 1

COUNSEL : Ms L.K. Wells for the Crown Mr J. Gordon for the Accused SOLICITORS : S.E. O'Connor for the Crown Hansons Lawyers for the Accused DECISION : See Judgment at Paragraph 38

IN THE SUPREME COURT OF NEW SOUTH WALES COMMON LAW DIVISION CRIMINAL

Graham Barr J

20 February 2002

70017/01 Regina v Daniel James EZOLD

SENTENCE 1 HIS HONOUR: The offender, Daniel James Ezold, has been found guilty by a jury of the murder on 15 or 16 November 2000 at Coniston of Liam Salter-Tully. 2 The offender and others, including one Jason Farrell, lived in a flat in Wollongong. The deceased, who perhaps had nowhere to live, used to come to the flat on occasions to sleep. Sometimes he broke in in order to do so and thereby made himself unwelcome.

3 The occupants became annoyed and decided to put a stop to his visits. At the end of an evening during which they consumed a substantial amount of alcohol and took LSD, they went for a walk along the beach and into a secluded place in the Tom Thumb Lagoon Wetlands. There they attacked the deceased with a drink bottle and with their hands and feet.

4 The offender was the first to strike a blow, beating the deceased without warning on the head with a bottle. The deceased was pushed off the top of a culvert and fell about two metres on to the bed of a shallow tidal drain. There he was punched and kicked as he lay. His jaw was broken. He was held face down in the water and drowned. Farrell was the one who did the act causing death.