2 days ago
Broken Hill man found guilty of stabbing older brother with kitchen knife in family home
A 29-year-old Broken Hill man has been found guilty of intentionally causing grievous bodily harm to his brother when he stabbed him at the family home two years ago.
After a trial lasting more than a week, the jury concluded Kyle Ross Henderson had intended to cause serious harm to his brother, Dwayne Henderson, when he plunged a large kitchen knife into his leg during an altercation in June 2023.
Dwayne's leg had to be amputated shortly afterwards due to his injuries.
The trial centred around whether Henderson intended to cause "serious" injury to his brother and whether he was acting in self-defence when he stabbed him.
Throughout the trial, defence counsel Caitlan Akhtar argued her client was acting in self-defence, which he and his partner Megan Bock referred to in their evidence.
"He [Dwayne] struck me with a chair … he grabbed me into a headlock and kept hitting me," Henderson said on the witness stand.
Prosecutor Shane Drumgold SC told the court this contrasted with evidence from the brothers' father, Mark, who did not recall Dwayne charging Henderson with a chair, nor having him in a headlock when he was stabbed.
"I'm going to suggest to you that you made this up," Mr Drumgold put to Kyle Henderson.
Henderson denied the allegation.
Mr Drumgold told the court his father was reluctant to give evidence against his son, and he was a credible witness.
"This was a man in significant emotional pain," he told the court.
The court heard that shortly before the stabbing, Henderson punched a hole in the games room door, flipped a table and had an argument with his mother, Jennifer, and a family friend, Bianka Davey, who was also Dwayne's ex-partner.
Mr Drumgold told the court Henderson's increasingly aggressive state led Ms Davey to ask the victim to check on his mother.
During his account to the jury, Dwayne said the events were "a blur".
He said he only recalled phoning his girlfriend while being driven to hospital to tell her he was dying, before later waking up in an Adelaide hospital without his leg.
The jury also heard from the Henderson parents, both of whom said they remembered little from the night.
"The whole thing has done my head in. I can't even think straight these days," Jennifer Henderson said while giving her evidence.
From the start of the trial, the defence never contested that the stabbing occurred, instead arguing the points of intention as well as Henderson's cause for self-defence.
While cross-examining Dwayne, Caitlin Akthar asked him about an incident when he smashed a car window with his brother inside, which he confirmed.
Separately, one of the prosecution's main witnesses, Kyle Henderson's partner Megan Bock, said the argument with Mrs Henderson agitated the accused and claimed Dwayne Henderson had instigated the fight between the brothers.
After five hours and 54 minutes of deliberation, the jury returned a guilty verdict to the charge of causing grievous bodily harm with intent.
Henderson will be sentenced at a date to be determined.
