“It’s not a case of men… finding themselves in a situation that they couldn’t avoid, fearing for their physical safety and taking whatever steps necessary to protect themselves, because these men willingly took part in a fight, to harm each other.”
The jury just needed to watch the footage from CCTV; even though there was no sound and was taken from a distance, you could see “exactly what happened”.
Ben Sweeney put a helmet on before getting out of his vehicle and armed himself with a bottle.
He’s then seen approaching Anthony Bell who appears to stoop before Sweeney unleashes a “flurry of punches”.
“These are deliberate punches to the head of a man, and effective ones because they knocked the deceased to the ground.
“Mr Sweeney gets down on the ground too and hits him again in the head.
“And then what does he do? He gets up… and he kicks him deliberately in the head.
“And guess what? He does it again, straight into this man’s head.”
Bell manages to get to his feet, and it’s a blow that Morgan alleges was delivered by Frank Sweeney, who can be seen on CCTV footage approaching the victim before he’s then seen falling to the ground, never to get up.
Through their counsel, the accused say they were defending themselves.
Frank Sweeney said the last blow to Bell was unintentional, but Morgan submitted that couldn’t be true.
Although exactly what happened couldn’t be seen in footage as it was obscured by a petrol pump, the jury could form an inference that Frank Sweeney squared up to Bell, putting one foot forward and delivering a “blow of tremendous force which makes a 153kg man lose his footing”.
“When you get the chance,” he told the jury, “watch the deceased’s feet”.
“He slumps to the ground, that we can see clearly and obviously... and he doesn’t make a conscious move again.”
Morgan said it was either the impact of the blow or the impact of Bell hitting the ground - “it doesn’t matter which” - that injured his brain stem and stopped him from breathing.
Frank Sweeney’s claim he put both arms around his head and unintentionally struck Bell, was “nonsense”, he said.
Ben Sweeney said he was defending his brother.
“You know that he’s not acting in defence of himself… he gets out of the car, swaggers up to the white ute before anyone gets out of it with a bottle and a helmet on his head.”
He said it was Ben Sweeney’s purpose in delivering kicks to the victim’s head to inflict bodily harm, which amounted to applying intentional force, a factor the jury needs to decide in finding him guilty of assault with intent to injure.
As for the charge of assault with a weapon – a hammer – Morgan said the footage showed him striking it into the back of Bell’s brother, Victor Tumai, who was fighting a third man from the Sweeney’s group.
As for the manslaughter charge, they were jointly charged as Ben Sweeney had earlier inflicted blows on Bell before his cousin is accused of delivering the fatal punch which sent the Te Kūiti man to the ground.
Frank Sweeney’s counsel Julie-Anne Kincade, KC, said there was no intentional assault that day.
She said the cousins were simply driving between Ōtorohanga and Te Awamutu that day, “minding their own business”.
Her client pulled into the Mobil as he wanted to stop somewhere with security cameras so it could record what might happen.
Bell and his brothers were not hesitant about getting out of the car; Bell had a hammer and Ethan Tumai a small screwdriver.
Prior to stopping, Bell and Ethan Tumai had also consumed a large amount of alcohol; 15 bottles of Export Gold before going to the pub and sharing three jugs, before they went to a bottle store where Bell got a box of beer and Tumai, a box of Woodstock bourbon.
Kincade said that was important evidence as that amount of alcohol could affect the steadiness of someone’s feet and ability to remember what happened.
There was only one interaction between Bell and her client, just before his fatal fall.
“It was a very fast-moving scene… the Crown must prove that there was an intentional assault.
“Frank Sweeney says there was not.
“What you have here falls way short of what is required so that you can be sure.”
Ben Sweeney’s counsel, Nick Chisnall KC, said the evidence from the trial showed the fragility of human life was tragic and pointless and avoidable but it was not a culpable homicide.
While his client admitted using the hammer, it was struck so lightly that Victor Tumai didn’t even notice he had been hit.
“Benjamin Sweeney is an innocent man.”
His client had seen Bell and Ethan Tumai with weapons in their vehicles and took a beer bottle to try and protect himself.
He had already given testimony about how he decided to strike Bell as he was nearly twice as big as him, 153kg, compared to around 80kg.
Bell dropped the hammer and Sweeney took the opportunity to get him before he could use the weapon on himself.
Sweeney then went back to Bell and grabbed the hammer off him so that he couldn’t use it on him.
He also reiterated that his client could only be found guilty of manslaughter if his cousin was too, as it was alleged the last blow from Frank Sweeney was fatal.
Justice Mathew Downs will deliver his summing up on Wednesday morning, before sending the jury out to begin their deliberations.
