‘Can’t take a hit’: Man killed in brawl was ‘taunted as he lay convulsing and dying on the ground after being punched in the head’
- Court told man was taunted as he lay dying after an alleged wild street brawl
- Jack Hanley, 22, was struck and killed during a street fight in Adelaide in 2017
- Supreme Court was told someone taunted him saying he ‘can’t take a hit’
- An eyewitness to the brawl told the court he heard the verbal abuse of Hanley
A court has heard that a young man was taunted as he lay dying on the footpath after allegedly being struck in a brawl.
Jack Hanley, 22, (pictured) died after being struck by a fatal punch during a six man brawl on Hindley Street, Adelaide in 2017
Jack Hanley, 22, died after being struck by a fatal punch during a six-man brawl on Hindley Street, Adelaide in 2017, The Advertiser reported.
The man accused of throwing the punch, Reece Watherston, 21, pleaded not guilty to the charge of manslaughter in the Supreme Court and his lawyer denied the claims his client was the one who taunted Hanley as he lay dying.
An eyewitness to the altercation, Christopher Jones, told the court he arrived on the scene to see four men gathered around two other men in a ‘four on two’ fight.
He said Hanley was one of the two-man group.
‘(Mr Hanley) fell like a tree cut at the base, quite stiff, (Watherston) began taunting him, yelling at him, that he wasn’t able to take a hit, that he was a ‘bitch’,’ he told the court.
‘He made those comments as (Mr Hanley) was convulsing on the ground, he wasn’t concerned.
‘He called him a ‘little bitch shaking on the ground who can’t take a hit’, then he left the scene.’
Mr Jones said he did not see who threw the punch or see the punch being thrown but he did see Mr Hanley collapse to the ground.
The man accused of throwing the punch, Reece Watherston, 21, (pictured centre) pleaded not guilty to the charge of manslaughter in the Supreme Court and his lawyer denied the claims he was the one who taunted Hanley as he lay dying
Lawyers for Watherston said Mr Jones’s description of the assailants did not match video footage of the incident captured on mobile phones and CCTV cameras.
They also said their client was not the man who taunted Mr Hanley.
The court was told all the men who were caught up in the brawl were allegedly on a cocktail of drugs including cannabis, MDMA and nitrous oxide.
Mr Jones conceded it was possible one of the other men at the scene was the one to taunt Hanley as he lay dying.
The trial in the Supreme Court continues.