A farm worker who amputated a pensioner's leg with a circular saw in a public park has been found guilty of manslaughter but not murder. The Supreme Court in Cairns delivered the verdict after a four-day trial.
Kalman Tal, 66, paid banana picker John Yalu $5,000 to remove his lower left leg at a riverfront park in Innisfail in the early hours of February 19, 2022. Mr Tal died shortly after the amputation.
The court heard that Mr Tal had suffered years of pain in his leg and had been offering locals cash for an amputation in the weeks before his death. Yalu pleaded guilty to manslaughter at the start of the trial but denied intending to cause grievous bodily harm.
CCTV footage showed the pair's movements before and after the amputation, including the three minutes it took Yalu to cut the leg at the ankle. After the amputation, Mr Tal hopped and crawled back to his car, but Yalu walked away instead of driving him to hospital.
A passer-by found Mr Tal in a gutter with a phone connected to Triple Zero about 10 minutes after Yalu left. Despite emergency efforts, Mr Tal was declared dead at 4:30am.
The jury deliberated for less than three hours before returning a unanimous verdict. Justice James Henry had directed jurors that they could employ their 'innate sense of fairness and justice on behalf of the community' in reaching their decision.
