Man accused of assaulting Emma Bates had no duty to call ambulance, lawyers say

He said Torney took on the duty of care for Bates because the pair were in a de facto relationship, had lived together before his death, and because he knew Bates had chronic diabetes.

Cookson told the court Torney violently attacked Bates the night before he died, prompting Torney to tell him: “John, look at what you’ve done.” He said the defendant later told police Bates was “bleeding” from his forehead.

“That was the state of his mind as he lay moaning and groaning and could not be woken up the next morning,” Cookson said.

He said Torney did not call an ambulance after the attack because he was worried about criminal consequences.

Cookson said Torney was negligent under the “criminal standard” because if Bates had received timely medical care, his ketoacidosis could have been treated and he might still be alive.

Loading

But defense lawyer Hayden Rattray rejected the idea that the pair were in a de facto partnership and said their relationship was “extraordinarily short-lived” and began two to four weeks before her death.

Rattray told the court that the negligent manslaughter charge should be dismissed because although Torney exhibited a “moral failure of a fairly significant nature,” the jury failed to find beyond a reasonable doubt that he caused Bates’ death by failing to seek medical attention.

He argued that Torney had no knowledge of diabetic ketoacidosis and that it remained unclear when he began showing symptoms of this complication.

The court previously heard that in the days before Bates was found dead, family members of the accused killer saw his face covered in blood and bruises on multiple occasions.

His mother, Belinda Torney, told the court her son told her Bates punched him in the head three times before he was found dead.

John Torney had moved from his mother’s house next door to the Bates house shortly before his death, following a disagreement between his mother and his brother.

Belinda Torney also told the court her son asked Bates to call an ambulance when he said he couldn’t wake him up.

“He said, ‘He’s breathing. He’s not dead… idiot’. So I said, ‘Maybe call him an ambulance’ and he said he would if he didn’t wake up,” she told the court last month.

She also told the court Bates became concerned about her blood sugar levels and eventually called the police, who conducted a welfare check and found the woman dead.

Loading

Torney’s brother, Craig Challie, also told a hearing that the last time he saw Bates, his lip was swollen and bloody.

Bates’ heartbroken family remembered him as a loving and kind person who always saw the good in people.

A hearing into Bates’ death in October last year was told Torney told Challie he was “going to rip her body into pieces”.

In the police statement read to the court at the same hearing, it was stated in detail that Torney’s mother described him as a “monster” and said she was afraid of him.