A jury will decide the fate of Henry Charles Walcott who has pleaded not guilty to murdering a man at a Leura house in 2016.
Walcott, 30, formerly of Petersham and now living in Bombala, has been charged with using a knife to fatally stab 34-year-old Sydney victim Cameron Bradley in the chest and neck.
The NSW Supreme Court heard on Monday that the victim and the accused had consumed drugs in the two days before the fatal incident – including methylamphetamine (ice), MDMA (ecstasy) and GHB (fantasy) while staying at a friend’s holiday let.
In his opening address Crown Prosecutor Guy Newton said the fact Mr Bradley was stabbed to death by Walcott on November 10, 2016, was not in dispute. Walcott was found with the dead man and the blood-stained knife after calling Triple 0 to confess to the killing. He also later admitted to police in a video recording that he had killed his friend. They had fought in the loungeroom, the accused was stabbed and later, while Mr Bradley was bleeding profusely, Walcott dragged him to the bathroom.
“The issue that will loom larger will be the intent,” the crown prosecutor said.
In that police video statement the court heard Walcott was worried about Mr Bradley’s state of mind leading up to the incident.
“Mr Bradley made it fairly clear that he felt only one party was leaving the house alive … He was more keen on the idea of me killing him than the other way around [but] if I was not willing to go ahead with it, he would,” the court heard.
Defence barrister Brendan Green told the court in a brief address that Walcott was acting in self defence. But Mr Newton argued Walcott left the premises and drove around in his car for a few hours before calling police about the death – “conduct not consistent with a person acting in self defence”.
The court started to hear evidence from friends and family about Mr Bradley’s mental state in the months leading up to the incident. He was a regular ice user as he struggled to cope with the death of his mother two years earlier and a relationship break-up, and he felt “heightened anxiety” when smoking ice.
But these witnesses all reported Mr Bradley was not violent or suicidal, despite his brother calling the police on one occasion for help with a threat of suicide. Mr Green put it to two witnesses that the victim had been obsessed with American serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer, but they both said that was not the case. The two week trial is before Justice R A Hulme.