The man accused of the manslaughter of former Strathmerton postmaster John Burke has been committed to stand trial.
Troy Matthew Maskell, 43, of Numurkah, pleaded not guilty to the manslaughter charge after a committal hearing in Shepparton Magistrates’ Court.
The charge comes after the death of 73-year-old postmaster John Burke more than two months after an incident at the Shell service station at Strathmerton on August 8 last year.
The court heard evidence from service station employee Brenton North, who was working on the night Mr Burke was assaulted.
Mr North told how Mr Burke had been in the service station shop for about 10 minutes when a woman — Mr Maskell’s partner — and a girl entered around 1am.
He said everything seemed fine initially, before the woman “aggressively” said something to Mr Burke.
Mr North said the woman “thought Mr Burke was looking at the little girl”.
“John really didn’t say much at all. He was like, ‘pardon me?’,” Mr North said.
He then said a man — Mr Maskell — grabbed a one litre bottle of sports drink off the counter and threw it at Mr Burke, who by that time had backed into the “truckies’ lounge” in the next room.
“I heard the bottle get thrown. Hit something,” Mr North said.
As the woman and Mr Maskell went to leave the building, Mr North said they told him to delete the security camera footage.
He then waited for them to leave the outside of the service station before going into the next room where he found Mr Burke lying on the floor and called 000.
Paramedic Alexander Nicholson gave evidence to the court that when he arrived from Shepparton about 2.45am he was told by a police officer that there had been a dispute and a bottle or can had been thrown and hit Mr Burke on the head.
He said he noticed a laceration to Mr Burke’s left ear but that there was not any pain until he moved.
He also said Mr Burke was conversing normally while at the roadhouse.
Mr Nicholson said Mr Burke said it was not until they were on the drive back to the hospital in Shepparton when Mr Burke developed expressive dysphasia — a condition where he could still speak words, but none of it made sense.
“This is a signal of a traumatic head injury,” Mr Nicholson said.
“I asked him a simple question. His answer he said quite confidently and normally, but the words did not make sense.”
However, he told the court Mr Burke’s words returned to normal after 10 minutes.
Two forensic pathologists also gave evidence at the committal where they were questioned about Mr Burke’s injuries after he was flown to hospital in Melbourne the day after the assault.
Dr Yeliena Baber examined Mr Burke’s body after his death, and told the court he died of “a brain injury secondary to multi-cranial haemorrhages and a second bleed”.
“It is impossible to give one cause of death. You can not separate one from the other as being more or less significant,” she said.
The court heard how Mr Burke arrived at the Royal Melbourne Hospital with a bleed on the brain, before another bleed was detected in a brain scan nine days later.
Dr Linda Isles, who examined Mr Burke’s brain after his death, said haemorrhages that occurred on Mr Burke’s brain around August 16, 2021, were a “tipping point” and were the primary cause of his deterioration.
At the end of the committal, which only went for a few hours, magistrate Marita Altman committed Mr Maskell to stand trial in the Supreme Court for manslaughter.