Warning: This story contains content that some readers may find disturbing.
Bludgeoning a farmer to death with a rubber mallet as he slept was like putting down a pet dog, a murder-accused farmhand is alleged to have said.
Clinton Beau Wrigley, 40, has pleaded not guilty to murdering 58-year-old Joel Carter at a rural property in January 2023.
The farmer died of blunt force trauma after being repeatedly bashed over the head, prosecutors told a NSW Supreme Court jury today.
Days later, Wrigley allegedly discussed the incident with another person and compared it to beating his dog with a hammer after it was shot by police in 2012.
“I was hitting him and brains were just flying everywhere,” Wrigley is alleged to have said.
“It was like doing my dog.”
The homicide allegedly occurred late at night on January 22 or early the following day, two days before Carter's son found his father's body lying on a metal-framed bed in the home's lounge room in an advanced state of decomposition.
“I've found dad, I think he's dead,” Luke allegedly told his uncle over the phone soon afterwards.
A police examination showed the 58-year-old had died with an open head wound, multiple skull fractures and lacerations, the jury was told.
Prosecutor Michelle Swift told the Dubbo jury that the weapon used was not known.
But Wrigley told someone he knew days after the alleged murder that he had used a rubber mallet which he then destroyed inside Carter's burning ute, she said.
At the time of his death, Carter agreed to a farm-share arrangement on an adjacent property with a man who employed Wrigley as a farmhand and truck driver, Swift told the jury.
Wrigley allegedly told his boss on the night of January 22 that he was heading out to look for a stolen quad bike.
The next morning, he asked the same man to pick him up on a road outside of Nyngan which was close to where the burnt-out Hilux was later found, the jury heard.
Wrigley's boss saw him with a large stain on his clothing and noticed that he ducked down to avoid being seen by abattoir workers they drove past, Swift said.
No motive has been revealed for the murder although this is expected to change at trial.
Wrigley has also denied charges alleging he stole Carter's Hilux and set it on fire, and sold some of the farmer's power tools for $500.
The 40-year-old had no involvement in the murder, theft or vehicular arson, barrister Nicholas Broadbent SC said.
“Clinton Wrigley's case is that he did not kill Joel Carter,” he told the jury.
Instead, he pointed the finger at his boss's numerous disagreements with Carter, including one physical altercation.
The employer's account of where Wrigley went on the night of the alleged murder and where he had been picked up from was a lie, Broadbent said.
The alleged confessions were also in dispute, the jury heard.
