UPDATE, 1.30pm: Time will be precious in the Supreme Court sitting in Warrnambool on Wednesday.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Samuel Worthy, 21, of Hamilton, has pleaded guilty to murdering his friend Josh Kane in a contested plea hearing.
Wednesday is the last of a three-day hearing scheduled in the Warrnambool court.
On Tuesday four witnesses gave evidence including co-defendant Stuart Campbell who has already been sentenced to serve 12 years with a non-parole period of nine years.
In Wednesday’s morning session, Campbell came under rigorous cross-examination from defence counsel Stewart Bayles.
Worthy is also expected to give evidence and come under equally rigorous cross-examination from prosecutor Justin Lewis.
Issues revolve around exactly who did what with an 18 inch machete which led to Mr Kane's death.
Two medical experts are also booked in to give evidence via a video link.
Mr Bayles is also expected to deliver a plea on behalf of Worthy, likely to take more than an hour.
Court did not sit on Monday after Judge Jane Dixon and court officials viewed the Mount Eccles murder site.
The court was scheduled to sit from 2.15pm Monday but the sight-seeing party failed to return before 4pm.
A number of family members of those involved waited at court until it became obvious there would be no time spent in court on Monday.
Judge Dixon started sitting at 10am Wednesday instead of the usual sitting time of 10.30am in an effort to hear all the evidence.
Tuesday's evidence included a chilling account from Campbell of how Mr Kane died.
Tuesday, 5pm: A WARRNAMBOOL court has heard chilling evidence of how a Hamilton 20-year-old was killed in a machete attack at Mount Eccles National Park.
Samuel Worthy, 21, pleaded guilty yesterday in the Supreme Court sitting at Warrnambool to the murder of his friend Joshua Kane on January 23 last year.
Co-defendants Lanie Snell, 35, and Stuart Campbell, 20, have already been sentenced to lengthy jail terms.
The Warrnambool hearing is focused on who did what with an 18-inch machete.
A comment by Mr Kane in September 2015 that her son was lazy left Snell furious and sparked the murder plot.
Campbell returned to court yesterday to give crucial evidence against Worthy.
Worthy picked up Mr Kane from his home at Hamilton caravan park under the guise of going for an evening drive with Snell and Campbell.
The offenders, armed with a machete, pocket knives, gloves and a bottle of bleach, drove to Mount Eccles.
Campbell said a machete was taken out of the back of Snell's car when the four people set off for a walk.
Campbell grabbed his cannabis bong.
He said they were all swinging around the machete, walked halfway around Lake Surprise and then sat down where he and Snell smoked cannabis.
They then started walking back to the car park in single file – Mr Kane at the front followed by Worthy with the machete, himself and then Snell.
"Josh was attacked from behind by Sam," Campbell said.
"He was struck into the side of his neck. That was repeated twice more.
"Josh was screaming and begging, he was holding the side of his neck where he had been hit."
Campbell said he turned and walked away around a corner where he couldn't see what was happening.
"Josh was screaming and begging for Sam to stop. It continued for a while," he said, before recalling Snell and then Worthy walked on.
Campbell said Worthy was shaking and hyperventilating, the machete was covered in blood and Worthy said he couldn't do it – referring to killing Mr Kane.
He said Worthy tried to pass the machete to him before Worthy and Snell then went back but Mr Kane had fled.
Campbell said the area was covered in blood, the trio then walked back to the car park where he heard Mr Kane plea for assistance.
"He called 'help, help Sam, come here, help'," he said.
"Sam said 'give me a minute'. He wanted Lanie or me to go but I said no. Sam said 'I gotta do it, I gotta do it’. He repeated that again and again."
Campbell said Worthy and Snell went down the track.
"Josh started screaming again and then it just stopped," he said.
Campbell said they returned to the car park, where Worthy gave him the machete and told him to clean it with bleach.
He said he didn't want to wash it but knew what had happened to Mr Kane.
"I took it and washed it and wrapped it in my T-shirt," he said
Campbell said in the car on the way home Worthy repeatedly said "we're f...ked".
"Lanie said ‘we're in this together’. Sam said 'Yeah, but you two are not murderers'," he said.
"We agreed to say we took him to Coles and didn't see him again. I was very shocked.
"Lanie said it was not that bad. She said I didn't see the worst of it, I didn't see Sam attack Josh.”
The badly decomposed body of Mr Kane was found by police six days after he was killed just off the Lake Surprise walking track.