Accused details attack

A BRISBANE financial planner who beat a disgruntled client to death with a hammer to stop him blabbing about alleged fraudulent business practices told police he believed the man was going to “bury him”.

Indooroopilly businessman Trung The Ma, 35, has pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of Huegio Bonham at Tallai on the Gold Coast in 2014 on the basis of diminished responsibility at the time of the killing.

He also confessed to disposing of the 63-year-old’s body but pleaded not guilty to Mr Bonham’s murder at the start of his Brisbane Supreme Court trial on Tuesday, with his lawyers arguing he had an “abnormality of the mind” at the time of the killing.

The court heard Ma killed Mr Bonham with a hammer at the man’s Gold Coast hinterland property on February 3, 2014 after the 63-year-old threatened to tell people the financial adviser had defrauded him, which was revealed when he tried to buy a property to build a wellness “commune”.

Ma then took the body and hid it inside a large plastic container before dumping it in a storage shed in Indooroopilly.

Mr Bonham’s decomposing body was found by police about two weeks later.

In a record of interview played to the jury yesterday, Ma told police he began to bludgeon Mr Bonham in the head with a hammer he found at the property.

“And then, Huegio started to come back up again and I hit him in the head, he fell to the ground … he started to stir again and I just hit him for a third time and that was it.

“I kept trying to rationalise it (thinking) ‘this guy, he was going to ruin your life’.”

The trial continues.

PRIZE INCLUDES:

Two Qantas Economy Return Airfares

Two 15 Day Discover Japan Tours Accommodation Japan Airport Transfers Daily Breakfast, Plus Welcome & Farewell Dinner Bullet train from Osaka to Kyoto All Monument Entrance Fees

PLUS MUCH MORE!