A teenager punched and kicked a man unconscious at a Brisbane barbecue after an offensive but trivial comment was made to him, a court has been told.
Malik Morris, now 20, pleaded guilty to manslaughter after Justin Towers, 37, died from head injuries sustained during the “savage” beating on May 21, 2017.
In the hours leading up the attack, Mr Towers had been dancing and singing at the backyard barbecue at Morris’s grandfather’s Beenleigh home, the Brisbane District Court heard on Monday.
By the time he left he had suffered 65 separate injuries, including a fractured eye socket, after Morris and his stepfather, Kawana Pinikera, “viciously” assaulted him.
“(Mr Towers) was heard to make an offensive comment to the defendant … (who) responded by saying ‘do you want me to knock you the f**k out’,” prosecutor Judith Geary said during sentencing submissions on Monday.
“The defendant (then) joined (Pinikera) punching (Mr Towers) …”
“At the time (Mr Towers) was laying on the ground and saying he was sorry and that he wanted to go home.”
Ms Geary said Mr Towers tried to get up but Morris and Pinikera repeatedly punched and stomped on Mr Towers’ head and body “even after he became unconscious”.
When he was finally carried to the front of the house in a bid to help him escape, Morris followed and continued the assault “by punching him and stomping on his face”.
The following day paramedics took Mr Towers, who was unconscious, to Princess Alexandra Hospital.
His family switched off his life support system two days later.
“This was a sustained and deliberate attack on a man who had apologised and at no stage was fighting back,” Ms Geary said.
“The initial comment by (Mr Towers) was relatively trivial … (but Morris) persisted in a further attack … (that) was particularly vicious.”
Mr Towers’ mother Shirlene Towers told the court during her victim impact statement that her son’s brain was removed for forensic testing after he died.
“It sickens me that we had to say goodbye to our son at a service when we knew he was not complete for his final farewell,” she said.
Morris is expected to be sentenced on Thursday.