Professor weakens fatal sparring ‘accident’ hypothesis
Bradley Evennett died from facial fractures, brain haemorrhage and knocked out teeth following a violent backyard sparring session with a professional cage fighter.
Autopsy revealed that these injuries and associated blunt force trauma were the cause of death on March 22, 2024.
The report found that the 32-year-old’s genetic disorder osteogenesis imperfecta type 1, also known as brittle bone disease, did not contribute to his death.
At the NSW Supreme Court murder trial of Mr Evennett’s sparring partner Bradley Dusan Fletcher on Thursday, clinical geneticist Andreas Zankl appeared to agree.
He told jurors that the number and severity of the injuries were unlike the accidental injuries suffered by patients he had observed during his 25-year career.
“I’ve never seen an accidental orbital or skull fracture before,” he said under questioning by Crown prosecutor Kelly Ratcliffe.
“I’ve never heard of teeth being accidentally knocked out.”
Professor Zankl said that similar fractures can occur in people with brittle bone disease, but this requires some force.
“In all the cases I have observed, this is not something that occurs in everyday life,” he told the jury.
Fletcher, now 39, has denied murder after telling police his friend had died in a competition accident.
The trained mixed martial artist admitted his role in the death by pleading guilty to manslaughter.
This lesser claim was rejected by prosecutors.
The two friends had moved into a shared house in the northwestern Sydney suburb of Melonba on the day of the fatal sparring match.
They had consumed alcohol and cocaine before putting on the boxing gloves.
Fletcher didn’t call triple zero that afternoon after Mr. Evennett lay face down in the backyard.
Instead, he dragged the dead man’s body to a car, loaded it into the trunk, and drove it to a nearby street before dumping it on the footpath.
Fletcher’s then-girlfriend, Jasmine Robinson, would also move into the house with the two men.
He was at home when the pair started arguing but left before Mr Evennett was killed.
He is expected to testify when the trial resumes on Monday.
