The girlfriend a father who died during a violent neighbour dispute says he had gone to confront a man who called her a ‘silly b**ch’.
Mark Beecham, 44, died after going to confront his neighbour Mick Simpson, 44, minutes after he had verbally abused his partner Renae Hailes outside a home in Jarra Crescent at Glenmore Park, in Sydney’s south-west on Sunday evening.
Ms Hailes claims she had gone to the Simpson home, two doors away, to tell a friend’s son who had been playing there it was time to go home, when Mr Simpson unleashed.
She claims Mr Simpson called her a ‘silly b**ch’ and a ‘c**t, and she went home upset and called her partner Mr Beecham.
A distraught Ms Hailes on Monday recounted how she heard the struggle unfolding down the road, before being told by police her partner was dead.
‘I went down to tell a neighbour’s boy that he had to go home and as I walked off he (Mr Simpson) swore, really rude words and names at me,’ Ms Hailes claimed.
Mark Beecham (pictured) died on Sunday night when he was involved in an altercation with a neighbour. His partner Renae Hailes (pictured with him) claims she was verbally abused which kicked off the fight
Emergency workers were called to the brawl at Jarra Crescent in Glenmore Park just after 10.20pm on Sunday (pictured)
‘I turned to him and said ‘What did you say?’ and we had a bit of an argument. Then I came home and spoke to Mum, and then called Mark to talk to him and he got upset about it.’
Ms Hailes said she was in her backyard having a cigarette, when she heard screaming and went out the front to discover Mr Beecham and Mr Simpson fighting.
‘Mark was on the floor and Mick was on top of him. I was trying to get them off but couldn’t so I went to a neighbour to get help,’ Ms Hailes said.
‘I came back and he (Mark) was hitting him and I could hear it but I couldn’t see because she (Mark’s partner Adra Biscossi) wouldn’t let me go into the garage. I was just screaming.’
Ms Hailes said after spending the night with police, she had only just told the couple’s young son the devastating news.
‘He was a good husband, a good father and a good man,’ she said. ‘He was basically just defending me.’
But the surviving man Mr Simpson’s partner insists her man was acting in self-defence when he was swung by Mr Beecham who was armed with a metal pole.
Adra Biscossi said Ms Hailes had been to her house looking for another child, and a short time later, Mr Beecham returned carrying a metal pole.
She said Beecham swung the pole at Mr Simpson, knocking him out briefly and splitting his head open.
Mick Simpson was hit over the head with a metal pole during a neighbour dispute in Glenmore Park, in Sydney’s west, on Sunday night, but survived the attack. His girlfriend Adra Biscossi said he was ‘acting in self-defence’
The Glenmore Park home of Ms Biscossi and Mr Simpson where the deadly neighbour dispute took place in the garage
Kids bikes outside the house where a man died on Sunday night after an altercation with his neighbour
‘Mick tried to shut it off. He said: ‘I’m not talking about it, go away, there’s kids inside you need to go home’,’ Ms Biscossi said.
But Ms Biscossi claims Mr Beecham did not listen, and pursued Mr Simpson inside their double garage.
After splitting Mr Simpson’s head open with the pole, a struggle ensued while Ms Biscossi and her four children hid inside.
‘He was on the ground and they were fighting when it happened, I don’t know how (he died),’ she said.
Detectives at the home of Mr Simpson and Ms Biscossi on Monday, carrying out the investigation into the death of another man, Mark Beecham, who died on Sunday night
‘Mick was just trying to defend himself. We tried to get him (the neighbour) out and I called police straight away.
‘As soon as I saw him run into the garage I said: ‘That’s it, I’m calling police’.’
Mark Beecham’s mother-in-law Leanna (pictured) claimed he went to the Simpson and Biscossi house to ask why Mr Simpson had been rude towards his wife, when a fight then broke out
After splitting Mr Simpson’s head open with the pole, a struggle ensued while Ms Biscossi (pictured) and her four children hid inside
The dead man’s mother-in-law Leanna Hailes described the haunting scene as Mr Beecham lay dead in the street.
‘They were screaming ‘he’s got no pulse’ and they just stood their helpless watching him (die),’ she claimed.
‘It’s so sad. He had a child with my daughter and he was just a really nice guy.’
Police said an autopsy will be carried out within the next few days to determine how he died, and if he suffered a heart attack.
Mr Simpson, who is at his home recovering on Monday, has been interviewed by police but released without charges.
Officers from Nepean Police Area Command have established a crime scene and commenced an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the incident.