Screwdriver victim ‘went into a rage’
A MAN accused of murdering an Irishman in Australia has claimed the deceased flew into an ‘almost demonic’ rage when confronted over an allegedly ‘racist’ comment.
Andrew Doan, 35, is charged with stabbing Cork native Charles John McCarthy, 32, in the head with a screwdriver.
Mr Doan had been fishing with his friend Tien Vu Huynh in East Fremantle, Perth, in the early hours of December 23, 2017, when Mr McCarthy, his wife Nicole and friend Jason Mikel Curran walked by.
Giving evidence at the trial yesterday, Mr Doan said they asked: ‘Have you caught much?’ He mumbled ‘not much’ and they replied ‘bit of s*** luck’, Mr Doan said. Their next comment – along the lines of ‘fisheries are going to come and get you’ – upset him and Mr Huynh, who are both Asian and interpreted it as racist, the court heard.
Mr Doan told the court that ‘people make a stereotype of us that all Asians catch undersize fish, that all Asians eat undersize fish’.
The trio walked away but Mr Doan pursued them and an argument erupted, the court heard. ‘It looked like [Mr McCarthy] was coming into a demonic rage,’ Mr Doan said. He said he panicked, reached into a pocket, pulled out a screwdriver he carried for crabbing and held it above his head, saying: ‘Get back or I’ll stab you.’
He said Mr McCarthy moved to punch him and impaled himself on the screwdriver, which Mr Doan was holding. Mr Doan said he had closed his eyes, thrown his arms up to protect his face and forgot the tool was in his hand. He denies murder. The trial continues at the Supreme Court of Western Australia.