{"id":15028,"date":"2026-05-20T09:32:04","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T09:32:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/15028\/"},"modified":"2026-05-20T09:32:04","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T09:32:04","slug":"trial-hears-kalman-tal-offered-cash-for-amputation-before-his-death","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/15028\/","title":{"rendered":"Trial hears Kalman Tal offered cash for amputation before his death"},"content":{"rendered":"

A man who died shortly after arranging to have his leg amputated in a public park had been shopping around for someone to “help him take his pain away”, a court has heard.<\/p>\n

Innisfail pensioner Kalman Tal, 66, allegedly paid farm worker John Yalu $5,000 in cash to amputate his lower left leg using a circular saw.<\/p>\n

Mr Tal died from blood loss about half an hour after the alleged amputation at the Innisfail riverfront in the early hours of February 19, 2022.<\/p>\n

Mr Yalu, 41, has pleaded not guilty to murder<\/a> but his trial at the Supreme Court in Cairns has heard he accepted that he caused Mr Tal’s death and told police about the arranged amputation after his arrest.<\/p>\n

However, Mr Yalu was not the first person Mr Tal had asked to cut off his leg, the court heard.<\/p>\n

\"aerial<\/p>\n

Mr Tal approached Scott Torrens at the Innisfail riverfront offering $5,000, the court heard. (ABC Far North: Brendan Mounter)<\/p>\n

A witness, Scott Torrens, told the court Mr Tal approached him and two other men one morning at the Innisfail waterfront in December 2021, and asked whether anyone was “interested in earning $5,000”.<\/p>\n

The court heard Mr Tal sat beside Mr Torrens and said his leg was “killing” him, giving him trouble walking and standing.<\/p>\n

“I want it off. Would you be able to cut my leg off,” the court heard Mr Tal asked Mr Torrens.<\/p>\n

“He said ‘doctors cannot do nothing,'” Mr Torrens told the court.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

John Yalu, 41, allegedly used a battery-powered saw to remove Mr Tal’s lower left leg. (ABC News: Paula Broughton)<\/p>\n

Mr Tal showed Mr Torrens his pension card with his home address and said he wanted the amputation done there, the court heard.<\/p>\n

Mr Torrens took a photo of the card and told Mr Tal he needed “some time to think about it”.<\/p>\n

Mr Torrens told Mr Tal he would need “someone to hold the leg still while it gets cut” Mr Tal replied that he was “willing to bring another $500 for a person to hold him down”.<\/p>\n

Mr Tal told Mr Torrens the amputation needed to be done “around three or four o’clock in the morning”, the court heard, because “everyone [was] asleep at that time and no one is around”.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Defence counsel Jacob Kantor cross-examined other witnesses about Kalman Tal’s cash offers. (ABC News: Christopher Testa)<\/p>\n

The pair spoke on the phone several times after their initial meeting.<\/p>\n

“Very persistent, he was,” Mr Torrens told the court.<\/p>\n

“On the last phone call, you said to him, ‘Mate, I’m not going to do it, find someone else.’ Is that correct?” Mr Yalu’s defence counsel Jacob Kantor asked.<\/p>\n

“Yes,” Mr Torrens replied.<\/p>\n

After the final phone call just before Christmas 2021, Mr Torrens blocked Mr Tal’s number, the court heard.<\/p>\n

Man told he ‘needed help’<\/p>\n

Lucas Henriques Reboucas De Oliveira, a seasonal worker coordinator, came across an older man talking to some workers, offering to “pay cash” to cut his leg off in January 2022.<\/p>\n

The man pointed at his ankle and asked for “someone to help him take the pain away”, the court heard.<\/p>\n

“Because he was so insistent and kept asking, you asked him to leave you alone, is that correct?” Mr Kantor asked.<\/p>\n

“Yes,” Mr De Oliveira replied.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Crown prosecutor Nicole Friedewald outside court during the trial. (ABC News: Christopher Testa)<\/p>\n

About a week later, the same man turned up at a seasonal work office, again offering to pay for an amputation, the court heard.<\/p>\n

Ahna Kaihe, another work coordinator, told Mr Tal that he could not “go around asking people weird questions like that”.<\/p>\n

The court heard the man “remained persistent” even after Ms Kaihe told him he needed help and should go to the hospital.<\/p>\n

“It was only when you told him you would call the police that he left, is that right?” Mr Kantor asked.<\/p>\n

“Yes,” Ms Kaihe said.<\/p>\n

No alcohol in deceased’s blood<\/p>\n

The court heard Mr Yalu told a group of fellow banana pickers about Mr Tal’s $5,000 proposal about two weeks before the amputation.<\/p>\n

Patrick Hamos, a farm worker from Vanuatu who had known Mr Yalu since 2017, gave evidence via a Bislama interpreter about the conversation.<\/p>\n

“We told him that it was not the right thing to do, if he were to go through with it,” Mr Hamos said.\"A<\/p>\n

Patrick Hamos told the court he and fellow banana pickers warned Mr Yalu the amputation was not a good idea. (ABC Far North: Christopher Testa)<\/p>\n

The court heard that after Mr Hamos and the workers said that, Mr Yalu “just laughed and left”.<\/p>\n

Under cross-examination from Mr Kantor, Mr Hamos agreed Mr Yalu was a helpful man who had a good reputation among the workers.<\/p>\n

“Sometimes, even if he says something serious, he laughs after he says it, isn’t that right?” Mr Kantor asked.<\/p>\n

“Yes, because he is a funny man who is always laughing and smiling, so it’s hard to tell if he is joking or not,” Mr Hamos replied.\"Pacific<\/p>\n

Patrick Hamos told the court he initially thought Mr Yalu was joking. (ABC Far North: Christopher Testa)<\/p>\n

The forensic pathologist who examined Mr Tal’s body told the court the pensioner died from blood loss and suffered from underlying heart disease that may have hastened his death.<\/p>\n

Mr Tal’s heart was enlarged for his body size and one of his arteries had “significant” narrowing, Paull Botterill said.<\/p>\n

Dr Botterill found no alcohol in Mr Tal’s blood or body fluid.<\/p>\n

The trial, before Justice James Henry, continues.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A man who died shortly after arranging to have his leg amputated in a public park had been…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":13369,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[15207,14573,22,21,15203,15199,15200,15210,15208,10485,7820,15202,13972,13980,13973,15206,205,15201,15204,15209,15205,8961,8962],"class_list":["post-15028","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-ahna-kaihe","tag-amputation","tag-au","tag-austrlia","tag-banana-pickers","tag-blood-loss","tag-criminal-trial","tag-cross-examination","tag-dr-paull-botterill","tag-evidence","tag-far-north-queensland","tag-farm-labour","tag-john-yalu","tag-justice-james-henry","tag-kalman-tal","tag-loucas-de-oliveira","tag-murder-trial","tag-pacific-workers","tag-patrick-hamos","tag-paull-botterill","tag-scott-torrens","tag-supreme-court","tag-trial"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15028","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15028"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15028\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13369"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15028"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15028"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15028"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}