Witness to assault in tears
A MURDER trial witness broke down in tears as she took the stand, testifying to events that led to the 2020 death of fatherof-two Alex Ollson.
Peniola Liu, 32, is standing trial for the murder of Mr Ollson, who died early on the morning of Saturday, December 19, 2020, after Mr Liu assaulted him in Innisfail. At the beginning of the trial Mr Liu pleaded not guilty to murder but guilty to manslaughter.
Witness Rebecca O’Donnel told the Cairns Supreme Court she had been drinking at the Crown Hotel that night, and had left with her husband to go to the taxi rank around the corner.
“I can remember Peni standing with Alex, and then Alex … Alex being hit,” she told the court.
“He was hit again and he started trying to get up and he was hit again and that was when he fell on the ground and hit his head,” she said.
She testified she did not hear any conversation between them. Her husband Mervin O’Donnell told the court he believed that the two were having an altercation because of their body language and body reactions. He testified to the same sequence of events.
Mr O’Donnell said after Mr Ollson hit his head, “his eyes were not in a good way. I’m no doctor but it looked like a seizure, what his eyes were doing and his body.
“I said to Peni, ‘enough, that’s it’.”
Also taking the witness stand on the second day of the trial was Dr Paul Botterill, a medical practitioner and a specialist medical pathologist, based at Cairns Hospital.
He conducted the autopsy on Mr Ollson on December 21, and testified to Mr Ollson’s injuries.
He told the court Mr Ollson had suffered bleeding on the brain and that his brain appeared to be swollen.
He gave Mr Ollson’s cause of death as blunt force head injury, which had caused sub-arachnoid haemorrhage.
The CCTV footage of the assault was replayed and Crown prosecutor Nathan Crane paused it and asked Dr Botterill after each blow if it could have caused the fatal injury.
He replied yes to each punch, although his opinion was that the last of the blows, when Mr Ollson fell and hit his head on the ground, was the most likely to have resulted in the brain injury.
The accused, Peniola Liu, will take the witness stand with the assistance of a Tongan interpreter.
The trial is proceeding before Chief Justice Helen Bowskill.