A 25-YEAR-OLD man has been accused of attacking his own brother – twice knocking him unconscious, including ‘kicking his head like a football’.
On the first day of a Royal Court trial yesterday, the jury heard that Jake Marley Robertson and his brother got into an argument which turned violent at Bonne Nuit Bay on 31 July last year.
Mr Robertson is accused of kicking his brother in the head, knocking him unconscious, and later lifting him off the ground and dropping him so that his head hit concrete, rendering him unconscious again.
Both men were charged with committing a grave and criminal assault against each other. Mr Robertson’s brother pleaded guilty to the offence and was sentenced in June. But Mr Robertson denied it, claiming he was acting in self-defence.
Crown Advocate Matthew Maletroit, prosecuting, said Mr Robertson’s actions amounted to ‘senseless violence’.
He pointed out that self-defence was permitted if it amounted to no more than ‘reasonable force’. But he said: ‘Self-defence is a matter of common sense. This went beyond what could be considered reasonable self-defence.
‘It was not reasonable, it was not necessary, and therefore it cannot have been lawful.’
Outlining the prosecution’s case, Advocate Maletroit said that Mr Robertson’s brother had suggested they go paddle-boarding at Bonne Nuit on the afternoon in question.
But he said when Mr Robertson arrived his brother was drunk. ‘His drunk state meant that paddle-boarding was out of the question.’
The brother had then got annoyed, according to the Crown Advocate, who added: ‘A prolonged altercation escalated into a very serious assault.
‘He knocked him unconscious twice, the first time by kicking his head like a football, the second time by throwing him onto concrete, like something you would see in a rugby match.’
He added: ‘Put simply, he lost it. His anger got the better of him and he went well and truly over the top.’
The court heard from a woman who had seen the two brothers fighting that afternoon. She said: ‘It was quite a scary situation.’
She said she saw Mr Robertson lift his brother off the ground and turn him upside-down and added: ‘I heard the sound of his head hitting the pavement.
‘I didn’t see it but I heard it. It was a loud thudding noise. It was sickening.’
Another woman, who had been swimming at the bay that afternoon, also said she saw the incident. She said: ‘The defendant picked him up at waist-ish level and slammed his head into the concrete floor. It was not a nice noise to hear.’
The trial continues.
