Tim Picton’s alleged killer remains on bail despite returning positive blood alcohol reading
The man accused of murdering leading Labor strategist Tim Picton in a cowardly attack has avoided being sent back to prison to await trial after police prosecutors abandoned an attempt to revoke his bail.
Brodie Jake Dewar, 20, returned to the High Court on Thursday after the state applied two weeks ago to revoke his bail, which was subject to 12 conditions by Judge Joseph McGrath, including not consuming alcohol.
The court was told officers administering Dewar’s bail conditions gave him a random breath test in the early hours of Sunday morning and his blood alcohol level was allegedly 0.014.
But strangely, prosecutor Justin Whalley withdrew the application after watching the video presented behind closed doors by Dewar’s defense lawyer Milan Bevk.
Whalley told the court that after he was notified of the evidence, along with the video and a “scientific journal”, he did not believe the state had strong enough evidence to proceed with the application.
He said it was clear Dewar breath tested positive, but the state failed to prove he consumed alcohol in violation of his bail condition.
“I hesitate to go into further detail… I’m not sure this is going to help enforcement efforts in this state as a whole,” he said.
Whalley said the state has procedures it will put in place in future cases that will prevent this scenario.
Dewar said nothing as he left the court.
He faces a charge of manslaughter in connection with the alleged attack on Picton outside a nightclub in Northbridge in the early hours of December 27.
Dewar’s bail conditions included surrendering his passport, staying away from licensed premises and being subject to random drug and alcohol tests.
He was also required to stay at his parents’ home in Lesmurdie, south-east of Perth, and has a 7pm to 5am curfew, allowing him to continue his apprenticeship as a roof fitter.
While Picton’s family opposed Dewar’s release on bail, police prosecutors also initially opposed it.
Due to the alleged attack, 36-year-old Picton suffered a serious brain hemorrhage and fell into a coma, but died in hospital on January 19.
At a hearing early last month, Dewar’s lawyer Simon Watters said Picton repeatedly approached his client’s 18-year-old cousin at the Paramount Nightclub on Boxing Day.
Picton was escorted out of the nightclub before it closed at 5am and approached the girl outside again, after which Dewar approached Picton in the street.
The court was told Dewar had been attacked from behind by an unrelated person five minutes earlier and Watters said the 20-year-old assumed he would be attacked by Picton during their interaction, leading him to “punch first”.
But police prosecutors rejected Watters’ description of the interaction, saying it was not reasonable for him to believe Dewar would be shot.
The prosecutor said Picton did not make any aggressive moves and simply put his cigarette into his mouth slowly.
Dewar is also charged with allegedly assaulting another man outside the Kalamunda Hotel two days before he is accused of hitting Picton.
Dewar claimed the man was “hitting on” his younger sister and allegedly filmed her lying unconscious on the floor and shared the footage on Snapchat.
He has not yet entered a plea to either charge and is due back in court on April 29.
Picton was seen as an electoral mastermind, the driving force behind Labor’s 2021 state election win and 2022 federal election success in WA.
He left politics in 2022 to work as an executive at Mineral Resources and has previously worked for the Victorian and South Australian Labor parties.
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Hamish Hastie is WAtoday’s state political correspondent and the winner of five WA Media Awards, including the 2023 Beck Award for best political journalism.Connect with: X or email.
