Jurors in a triple murder trial have heard accused killer Darryl Young casually carried on with the day-to-day operations of his North Queensland cattle station after allegedly gunning down three family members from the neighbouring property whom he’d accused of stealing livestock.
Jurors heard Mr Young took a daytime nap while seated in his side-by-side ATV buggy and, under the direction of police communicating via mobile phone, posed for selfies with two wind farm workers while faraway law enforcement officers gathered evidence about the shooting.
The 63-year-old has pleaded not guilty to shooting dead Sutherland Station owners Merv Schwarz, Maree Schwarz and Ms Schwarz’s son Graham Tighe about 8am on August 4, 2022.
The Townsville Supreme Court has heard Mr Young called Graham Tighe the night before the shooting and demanded his family meet him at the front gate of his property, Shannonvale Station, to resolve the cattle duffing dispute.
The court heard Mr Young declared he’d “end this once and for all” before fetching a high-calibre rifle from his farm ute and firing upon the Tighe-Schawrz family at close range, killing three.
He’s also pleaded not guilty to the attempted murder of Mr Tighe’s younger brother, Ross Tighe, who managed to escape and survive the shooting despite taking a bullet to the abdomen.
Giving evidence as a prosecution witness during the first week of the trial, Mr Young’s son, Derek Young, described how two project managers from a windfarm company became caught up in the chaos.
The court heard the windfarm workers happened to be at Shannonvale Station as part of a prospective renewable energy project to install 43 turbines on the property, for which the Young family stood to receive $1.5 million in compensation.
Derek Young said he was “excited” and keen to help “the wind farm boys” erect a wind surveying apparatus on a Shannonvale Station mountain range on the morning of the shooting.
After directing the wind farm workers to a mountain peak “right up in the high country”, Derek Young said his father Darryl arrived soon after in a side-by-side ATV farm buggy with his grandfather’s partner, Sharon Brush, in the passenger seat.
Defence barrister Tony Kimmins asked during cross-examination, “When you came back up and spoke to he and Sharon, did you note any change in Darryl’s demeanour at all?” to which Derek Young replied “no”.
“He didn’t seem to be any different from when you’d seen him earlier that day?” Mr Kimmins asked.
Mr Young replied, “no”.
Mr Young told the court the whole group – he, his father, Sharon and the two wind farm workers – were all taken into custody later that day by police responding to the shooting at the front gate.
The two wind farm workers, Liam Parnell and Matt Garbutt from Sydney and Brisbane respectively, have both given evidence in the trial.
They described how Darryl Young, Derek Young and Sharon Brush were present on the mountain ridge and “observing” as they set up a large contraption which would be used to “measure the wind resource” on Shannonvale over a 12-month period.
They told the court they learned of the shooting about 11am via a phone call from their renewable energy company supervisor, and then began relaying information on their whereabouts and activity to police.
“I was asked (by police) to take photos and send them across. It was just a selfie of all of us up there,” Liam Parnell said.
Two selfie images shown to the jury depict the two wind farm workers and the three Young family members huddled together on a mountain range, smiling and giving thumbs up.
The two windfarm workers recounted eventually being directed by police to travel together in one vehicle down to the Shannonvale front gate – the scene of the shooting – where they were met by a police Special Emergency Response Team and taken into custody.
The trial continues.
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