Jury deliver verdict in Hamilton caravan park attack trial

Wayne Dennert was on trial in Warrnambool County Court after pleading not guilty to intentionally causing serious injury and an alternative charge of recklessly causing serious injury.

The jury returned the guilty verdict on the more serious charge late on Friday, October 13, after about two days of deliberations.

The charge of intentionally causing serious injury carries a maximum penalty of up to 20 years' jail.

Dennert repeatedly hit then 42-year-old Brendan Nancarrow with an iron bar on April 24, 2021, leaving him in hospital for months with multiple fractures.

During the trial jurors heard evidence from a man who was staying at the caravan park at time, who said the attack was the most brutal thing he'd ever seen.

He said he heard a noise which he described as "hitting concrete with a bat".

He said he heard it repeatedly, "over and over and over".

"Then I heard screams for help," he told the jury.

He said he saw Dennert "standing over the other guy with a metal pole just whacking him".

The witness said he would have heard over 40 "whacks" or "thumps".

Dennert had claimed he thought someone was breaking into his caravan, and that he acted in self-defence.

In closing addresses on October 11, barrister Anna Dixon urged jurors to put themselves in Dennert's shoes on the night of the attack.

She said the caravan park was the largest emergency accommodation provider in the region and that two weeks earlier the manager had been attacked by two drunk temporary residents inside his own home.

Ms Dixon told the court her client, Dennert, was aware of that break-in and he gave evidence to the jury of hearing people outside his caravan, where he lived, and feeling scared, flustered and breathless.

"He was motivated by fear," she said.

She said Mr Nancarrow was a large, tall man who ran at Dennert, and asked jurors to consider how they would feel in that moment.

"You would do whatever it took to defend yourself in the seconds you have," she said.

The jury previously heard Mr Nancarrow was repeatedly hit with an iron bar, leading to a bleed on the brain as well as a number of fractures, including to his skull, eye socket, ribs, leg, wrists and hands and fingers.

Prosecutor Andrew McKenry said Dennert gave "simply implausible" evidence during the trial.

He said the accused man claimed 10 people were trying to break into his caravan through a window that was less than an A4 piece of paper wide.

He said when Dennert came out of his caravan, nine of those people had completely disappeared without a trace.

Mr McKenry said the accused had told jurors he struck Mr Nancarrow, who then advanced at him, despite having multiple skull fractures, and a witness giving evidence the victim couldn't get up from the ground.

He said after the attack, Dennert told police the victim had smashed up the caravan.

"That was a lie," the prosecutor said.

Mr McKenry suggested Dennert had lied to police to create the impression he was the victim.

He said every step of the way the accused man had "tried to duck the clear unreality of his explanation".

Dennert will appear in court again on December 8 for a plea hearing.

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