Didgeridoo murderer jailed for life
AN Atherton man has been jailed for life for murdering one flatmate with a didgeridoo and assaulting two others.
A Cairns Supreme Court jury took just over four hours to find Curtis Lloyd Mitchell, 38, guilty on all counts, handing down its verdict about 8.15pm yesterday after a five-day trial.
Mitchell was given a life sentence for murdering his 43-year-old housemate, David Rolley, on Easter Saturday in 2004 and two years jail for two counts of assault occasioning bodily harm while armed.
It is the second trial for Mitchell, whose previous life sentence after the first six-day trial in April last year was overturned on appeal and a retrial ordered.
Three Supreme Court judges in August found the previous trial judge’s instructions to the jurors could have misled them about lies told by Mitchell.
In his summary of the case yesterday, Justice Stanley Jones told the court Mr Rolley had been killed by a head injury from repeated trauma with a blunt instrument.
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