IRISHMAN GEARÓID Walsh’s brother tried to get him to walk away from the altercation that killed him in Sydney two years ago, a court heard yesterday.
Ciarán Walsh told the court that he and Gearóid (23) had been drinking on and off from 8am on October 25th, 2009.
The accused, Tobias Simmons, is facing a committal hearing over the manslaughter of Mr Walsh, who died four days after he was punched and knocked to the ground in the Sydney beachside suburb of Coogee.
Mr Walsh’s mother Tressa arrived in Sydney from Dublin on October 28th. Her son died the following night after his family decided to take him off life support.
Mr Simmons also faces charges of reckless wounding and assault occasioning actual bodily harm.
Ciarán Walsh said in his evidence yesterday that he, his brother and some friends had been asked to leave two local pubs, the Coogee Bay hotel and Coogee Palace hotel, after a doorman in one bar saw Gearóid “dancing by himself”.
Later that night, when Gearóid Walsh was fumbling for money to pay for his order at the Coogee Yeeros takeaway kebab shop, he got into an argument with Mr Simmons, magistrate Carolyn Barkell heard. “I got to my brother and said ‘let’s go’, because I could sense things were getting out of hand,” Mr Walsh said.
“We walked down the street . . . but after maybe 20 seconds, Gearóid turned around and starting walking back up.
“I thought he just wanted to get away from me because I’d given him a telling off (about the argument) . . . but then I saw him turn back into the Coogee Yeeros.”
The prosecution alleges another argument then broke out between Gearóid Walsh and Mr Simmons, before Mr Walsh was knocked to the ground with one punch.
Mr Simmons has been on bail of $10,000 (€7,375) since November 2009. At the bail hearing his barrister Peter Bodor told the court Mr Walsh was hit in “a one-punch situation”. He said Mr Walsh hit his head as he fell to the ground. “The victim became disoriented . . . and stumbled about four metres, where he collapsed to the ground at the entrance of the Coogee Legion Club.”
Mr Walsh had moved to Australia just a month before he was killed. Six eyewitnesses are expected to give evidence at the committal hearing.