Carer to serve life for murder
“TERRANCE dropped an atom bomb when he killed my dad ... I have been killed too, it’s just that I am still breathing.”
The daughter of slain disabled pensioner Robert Duffy spoke in Cairns Supreme Court after a jury took less than an hour to convict Terrence Barallon, 46, of murder.
Olivia Duffy called Barallon’s defence – that he attacked Mr Duffy, 62, after an alleged sexual assault – a “complete character assassination,” cooked up by “a depraved and homophobic individual looking to justify the murder of an innocent man.”
Barallon – Mr Duffy’s federally funded live-in carer – savagely beat and stomped Mr Duffy on February 17 last year in his Mooroobool home.
Mr Duffy’s body was found by police days later, bound with tape, twine and an electrical cord. He had suffered a fractured skull, neck compression from a belt wrapped around his neck, crush injuries to his ribs and a blocked airway – likely from tissue paper that was lodged in his throat.
Mr Duffy’s ex-wife Susan said her grief over his death was “relentless”.
“I have cried every day and cannot come to terms with it.”
She said they were speaking of remarrying before Mr Duffy’s death.
Barallon left Mr Duffy’s body to decompose in the en- suite while he spent the next three days living in the house, using Mr Duffy’s car and withdrawing $2000 from his victim’s debit card.
He was arrested in Port Douglas on February 23.
Justice James Henry jailed Barallon for life after the “very unsurprising” verdict.
Barallon did not react to the verdict or sentence.
“He was a frail man whose disability meant he was unsteady on his feet,” Justice Henry said.
“That you were his carer and killed him was a betrayal of an enormous kind.
“The ferocity of the assault was such that it would have likely been the cause of death for a very well human being.”
He said Mr Duffy suffered defensive wounds suggesting he was bound while still alive.
Justice Henry suggested Barallon’s motive was likely greed and his defence a “poor concoction.”
“You damned yourself with your lies,” he said. “You did not even have the guts to testify…”