Man on manslaughter charge over punch

A MURDER charge against Byron Bay footballer Samuel Buultjens over the death of an Irish traveller has been withdrawn by the Director of Public Prosecutions.

The 20-year old Newrybar resident yesterday faced a committal hearing before Lismore Local Court magistrate Robyn Denes, charged with the manslaughter of Colm Kenny, 30.

Mr Kenny, a civil engineer from Ballycastle in County Mayo, died after allegedly being punched by Buultjens on a Byron Bay street at 3.30am, on May 11 last year.

Mr Kenny never regained consciousness from his head injuries and died in a Brisbane hospital on May 18.

Witness Christopher Norman, from New Brighton, was driving his wagon when he saw a man ‘stumbling like he was drunk’ before falling down.

“I could hear the sickly crack as his head hit the road,” Mr Norman told prosecutor Brendan Queenan.

“As soon as I heard that sound I knew something bad happened.”

Mr Norman said he did not see anyone punch the man, although there had been people near him.
“It could have happened before I looked,” he said.

Mr Norman and another man put the unconscious Irishman in the back of his wagon and drove him to hospital.

Witness Vicki Bayly, from Pottsville, saw two men running ‘in slow motion’ on Jonson Street.

“It looked like they were playing, like two fellows mucking around,” she said, cross-examined by senior defence counsel Peter Hamill.

She said a younger man she often saw in Byron chasing the older man. “He threw a punch, the man went down. That was it, he didn’t get up again,” she said. The hearing continues.