Body tied ‘in prayer’

Carer wanted to give pensioner last rites after slaying

THE full-time carer of a slain disabled pensioner told a Cairns court he bound his victim’s corpse in a kneeling position so they could pray together and then he beat the body with a broken belt.

Terrance Barallon yesterday told a Cairns Supreme Court trial he killed “flamboyant” disabled pensioner Robert Duffy in his Mooroobool home in February last year.

He has pleaded guilty to manslaughter but not guilty to murder.

Barallon told the court he fatally struck Mr Duffy after he was sexually assaulted on Friday, February 17 after helping the 62-year-old to his bedroom.

“He proceeded to grab my arse, he grabbed a handful,” he said. “I jumped, I felt violated.” Barallon said he punched Mr Duffy, who fell onto a table.

“It made me flip,” Barallon said. “I can’t say how many punches, I might have kicked him once.

“I thought, Jesus, he’s trying to rape me.”

Barallon said he wrapped a belt around the now deceased Mr Duffy the next day to lift him into the ensuite but the belt broke.

He “tied his legs together into a kneeling position, and taped his hands into a praying position”.

“He died at my hands and I wanted to give him his last rites,” Barallon said.

“I prayed with him for a couple of hours.”

He told the court he then “lost the plot”.

“I started slapping him with the belt, it was just gibberish, swearing at him,” he said.

Barallon told the court he had been raped as a fiveyear-old and in the months living with Mr Duffy he had been subject to repeated sexual harassment and mood swings by the man he cared for.

He said he stayed in the house with Mr Duffy’s body for three days.

“There was a bad smell coming from Robert’s room – I grabbed a doona and pushed it against the door and sprayed it with his cologne,” he said.

“I started thinking if I went away for a few days it would go away – I had done the worst thing you can do; you go to hell for that.”

He was arrested in Port Douglas on February 23.

The jury is expected to retire to consider a verdict on Monday.