STEPHEN John Freeman was accused in Orange District Court yesterday of parking his vehicle in the dark at Duntryleague Golf Club and lying in wait for Robert Williamson before he assaulted the victim, fracturing his skull on July 19 last year.
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“You were hell bent on revenge because the victim [Mr Williamson] told on you to Sue [Freeman’s wife],” Crown Prosecutor Michael Fox said.
Mr Fox said Freeman became enraged after Mr Williamson called Sue Freeman in June last year to tell her Freeman was parked at Campbell’s Corner with his [Mr Williamson’s] estranged wife.
“I was cranky and angry, but I wasn’t enraged,” Freeman said.
“The cat was out of the bag and you wouldn’t have told your wife otherwise. The reason you went there (Campbell’s Corner) was to be intimate,” Mr Fox said.
Freemen vehemently denied the allegations, saying he and his wife were good friends with Mr Williamson’s estranged wife Janine, and denied he was having an affair. He also defended making 100 calls from his phone at the Department of Primary Industries to Mrs Williamson, saying he and his wife often made calls from that particular phone to Mrs Williamson to plan a 60th birthday party.
Freeman told the jury his version of the events that unfolded at Duntryleague on the night of the incident.
He said he had returned to the club to see another member and was leaving the car park when he saw Mr Williamson walk out the door.
“It was a split-second decision,” Freeman said.
He told the court he walked towards Mr Williamson saying, “I want to f...ing talk to you.”
“He had unlocked his car and was about four metres away and I was walking towards him at a medium pace,” Freeman said.
Freeman said he thought Mr Williamson was getting into his vehicle to drive away.
“Then he stood up and he had the weapon [a fish stunner] and said ‘I’m going to f...ing kill you’.”
Freeman said after Mr Williamson hit him in the head he had no recollection of what happened next until he found himself on the ground trying to prise the stunner from the victim’s hand.
He said when Mr Williamson tried to get up he pushed him back to the ground, warning him “if you f...ing get up I will hit you.”
Freeman said when Mr Williamson’s friend Fred Tomley came out of the club and tried to intervene he warned him to stay away and waved the stunner at both men to keep them back, telling Mr Tomley not to get involved and to call the police.
Under cross-examination Freeman denied hitting Mr Williamson several times while he was on the ground, saying Mr Tomley had stumbled back over Mr Williamson, before Freeman walked into the club with the fish stunner in his hand to tell bar staff he had been assaulted and to call police.
Under questioning from Mr Fox, Freeman denied he had indicated to club members Tony Leahey and Ray Wilson he was out to get Mr Williamson.
“I did say to Tony Leahey I was going to sort it out,” he said.
Mr Fox told Freeman he did not accept his version of events.
“There was a violent struggle and you threw him to the ground. It was a convenient loss of memory,” Mr Fox said.
“Rubbish, I was hit in the head,” Freeman said.
Mr Fox and defence barrister Bill Walsh will sum up their cases today, with the jury expected to retire to deliberate on a verdict.