The assault of a man in a Mooroopna supermarket that resulted in his death has been described as a “vigilante” attack in court.
Matthew Atkinson, 20, of Shepparton, pleaded guilty in a sitting of the Supreme Court in Shepparton to manslaughter and drug trafficking charges.
The manslaughter charge relates to the death of Mooroopna man Bjorn Delphine, who was taken to hospital with life-threatening injuries after an assault by Atkinson at Woolworths in Mooroopna on May 22 last year.
Mr Delphine died in hospital on June 5, 2023, from a significant brain injury and a fractured skull.
Prosecutor Angela Moran told the court Atkinson approached Mr Delphine about 7.15pm when he spotted him in Mooroopna Woolworths and asked him to “come outside” to talk.
When Mr Delphine refused, Atkinson punched him once in the head and once in the chest, knocking him to the ground.
He then stomped on Mr Delphine’s head twice.
After the attack, Mr Delphine was flown to the Royal Melbourne Hospital, where medical staff determined his injuries were inoperable and his life support was turned off on June 1, 2023.
He died four days later.
Ms Moran said in a police interview, Atkinson told officers he was upset that Mr Delphine had naked pictures of an underage girl.
In a victim impact statement read to the court, Mr Delphine’s mother told how she “could not forgive the person responsible for my son’s death” and was angry at knowing she would never see him again.
One of Mr Delphine’s sisters said in her victim impact statement how she and other family members spent time with Mr Delphine in intensive care and then hardly leaving his bedside in palliative care after his life support machine was turned off.
“It was devastating to see the amount of machines and tubes connected to him,” she said of her arrival three days after the assault.
She said the doctors explained he had hundreds of tiny bleeds on his brain and nothing could be done.
“One of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do was watch my brother fade away.
“I still feel a lot of anger, as well as grief, as we will never see my brother again.”
Mr Delphine’s sister also said she felt anger and frustration every time there was news of the court case.
“I feel he was executed without the chance to clear his name,” she said of her brother.
Mr Delphine’s mother, two of his sisters and a nephew were in court on Thursday, May 30, as the plea hearing was heard.
Atkinson was supported by a large contingent of family members and friends.
Atkinson’s defence counsel Louise Conwell said her client had seen Mr Delphine at a supermarket and had “snapped”.
She said Atkinson had felt Mr Delphine had “acted inappropriately” with several young girls, and he wanted to speak to him.
Ms Conwell said the attack was “brief and in a flurry” and Atkinson had told police in his interview that he “had no intention to hurt him like that” and that Mr Delphine “did not deserve what happened”.
Ms Conwell said while the prosecution referred to the assault as “vigilante justice” she added it differed from other types of vigilante justice as it was “not planned and was entirely spontaneous”.
Ms Conwell also spoke of Atkinson’s childhood, which she described as one of “profound and protracted deprivation”.
She said he was “witness to, and subjected to extreme violence” by his father, including him having bones broken, before he was removed from the house at the age of 10.
Ms Conwell also told of three occasions Atkinson had been abused as a child after leaving home, and told how over the years he had self-harmed and attempted suicide.
A neuropsychologist report found Aktinson had fetal alcohol development disorder and ADHD, while he was also diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder.
The neuropsychologist also found that with those diagnoses, Atkinson “was likely to make impulsive choices” and did not think of the “bigger picture”.
As well as the manslaughter charge, the court also heard Atkinson had seven sandwich bags with cannabis in them, totalling 51.7g and that his phone had messages relating to the sale of cannabis and photos of mature plants.
Atkinson will be sentenced next week.