Vicious stabbing due to sexual advances, court told

Updated November 29, 2012 12:51:51

A young man viciously attacked an older man with a knife, leaving him a quadriplegic, because he thought his victim was making sexual advances, a court has heard.

In February last year, Daniel Charles Hughes, 25, stabbed Ken Weger, 68, six times in the neck, in the backyard of his home at Marion in Adelaide.

Hughes was arrested when police traced a television stolen from Mr Weger's house.

The South Australian Supreme Court heard Hughes previously was a boarder at the house and had gone there again looking for accommodation.

Defence lawyers said Hughes was drunk, on drugs and struggling to deal with a previous sexual assault.

They argued it was clear the attack was unplanned because Hughes used a small knife he carried to scratch lotto tickets rather than the restaurant knives he kept in his car for work.

"He had the knife for innocent purposes. If my client had any heinous intent towards Mr Weger he would have taken one of those (kitchen knives) with him," defence lawyer Adam Richards told the court.

"Mr Weger must have been at the mercy of my client in what could only be described as a flurry of blows, which he thankfully didn't completely go on with.

"This explosion that occurred was utterly and completely out of character. He's known to be the person that when confronted with conflict would walk away. He was the peacekeeper. He's a person who walks away from, rather than towards, violence.

"He must have had some sort of flashback to the sexual assault that happened to him as a young man, that he was ashamed of and hid from everyone. The taking of the TV was bizarre. The actual taking of the TV he doesn't remember. He didn't need the TV and when he took it he didn't take the remote that went with it, effectively rendering it useless."

Mr Richards said Hughes regretted what he had done.

"His remorse in this is profound. It doesn't just include entering a plea and being sorry," he said.

Hughes will be sentenced next month.

Topics: courts-and-trials, crime, law-crime-and-justice, sa, marion-5043, adelaide-5000

First posted November 29, 2012 12:05:35