Mate cleared of flood boat death
IT was standing room only in the Townsville District Court on Thursday afternoon when a jury returned to deliver its verdict, finding Darren James Homan not guilty.
Mr Homan pleaded not guilty to dangerously operating a vessel causing death and its alternative, general obligation on persons involved with operation of a vessel to operate it safely causing death when a trial started on Monday.
Homan and Justin Scott were in a tinnie with another man, Jamie Levitt, in the Burdekin River at Groper
Creek on February 8, 2019, when it smashed into a submerged pylon causing Mr Scott to be ejected into floodwaters.
Mr Scott’s body was never found.
Crown Prosecutor Andrew Walklate told the jury Homan unsafely operated the boat when he took it into the floodwaters, in and around the then submerged jetty at Groper Creek.
He said the water around the jetty was turbulent and fast moving and dangerous.
Mr Walklate said Homan’s actions caused the death of Justin Scott because of his decision to move the boat into the jetty’s vicinity. Homan’s barrister Harvey Walters said the incident was a “tragic accident”. He said just because a death had occurred did not mean someone had committed an offence.
“These are three good friends trying to do a good deed and this tragedy occurred,” Mr Walters said.
The jury heard from more than 15 witnesses across the four days including Senior Constable Timothy Farran of the Townsville Water Police who said the water conditions were very rough, the water was flowing fast and there were “whirlpools and debris” in it. He said there were rapids flowing over the jetty that was “completely submerged” and a search was under way for a missing man, Mr Scott, which was ultimately unsuccessful.
Regan Falco was in another boat when he saw Mr Scott was no longer in Homan’s tinnie.
He told the jury from the witness box he saw “stuff flying everywhere” after witnessing the boat smash into the jetty’s pylons.
Another witness, Gavin Falco, told the court on Tuesday he went to Homan’s aid after the accident.
He said Homan was “distraught” and was “pacing up and down” his boat and
Homan told him he had “lost my best mate” before saying “I should have known better”.
When Homan was in the witness box on Wednesday, Mr Walklate suggested he dangerously operated his tinnie when he drove it within a metre of the Groper Creek jetty, before it hit a submerged pylon at speed, ejecting Mr Scott into the river.
Homan disagreed and said he believed he was 25 metres away and was unaware there was a pylon below the water.
A jury of seven females and five males returned to the courtroom yesterday to deliver its not guilty verdict before Homan was discharged.