‘Inconceivable’ that Irishman stumbled onto screwdriver

IT is ‘inconceivable’ an Irish father of two accidentally impaled himself on a screwdriver during a fatal fight, an Australia jury has heard.

Andrew Doan, 35, is on trial in the Supreme Court of Western Australia, accused of murdering Charles John McCarthy, 32, originally from Cork, next to Perth’s Swan River in the early hours of December 23, 2017.

Fisherman Mr Doan and friend Tien Vu Huynh had been fishing without much luck when Mr McCarthy walked past with his wife Nicole and friend Jason Mikel Curran, who made a remark about the Asian men getting into trouble with fisheries officials for their catch, the court heard.

It was a ‘smart-arse, throwaway’ comment, prosecutor James Mactaggart told the jury in his closing address yesterday. However, Mr Doan said the remark was racist because there was a stereotype ‘that all Asians catch undersize fish’.

Mr Doan followed the trio down the road, brandishing a screwdriver and shouting: ‘I’m going to stab you.’ According to Mr Doan, Mr McCarthy then flew into a ‘demonic rage’.

The prosecution says, however, that Mr Curran went back to the fishermen’s vehicles to take photographs of their number plates so he could report Mr Doan’s threats to police and was struck by the accused, who yelled at him to delete the images.

Mr McCarthy went to intervene, and the next thing his wife saw was ‘his lifeless body drop to the ground’, the court heard. Mr Doan claims the deceased had raised a fist to punch him, so he closed his eyes, threw up his arms up to protect his face, ‘bracing for impact’, and forgot the screwdriver was in his hand. ‘It is inconceivable, impossible that Mr McCarthy could have tripped, fallen, stumbled – or in some way not really made clear – impaled himself on that screwdriver,’ Mr Mactaggart said.

The prosecutor said it was also inconceivable that Mr Doan forgot he was holding the screwdriver.

The jury is expected to retire to consider its verdict today.