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The man accused of killing prominent Labor figure Tim Picton in a one-punch attack in Northbridge will walk free from jail after a judge granted him bail.
Lesmurdie man Brodie Jake Dewar, 20, is facing a manslaughter charge over the alleged incident which occurred outside a Northbridge nightclub in the early hours of December 27.
The alleged assault left Picton, 36, with a serious brain bleed, and he was placed in a coma but died in hospital on January 19.
In December, Dewar was granted bail in relation to the alleged attack on Picton, but was taken into custody on January 16 after police laid new charges against him for a separate assault outside the Kalamunda Hotel just two days before the Picton incident.
On Wednesday, Justice Joseph McGrath granted Dewar bail for that incident, allowing him to leave prison on Wednesday afternoon.
He will be subject to 13 conditions, including that he surrender his passport, stay away from licensed premises and submit to random drug and alcohol tests.
He will also have to stay at his parents’ house in Lesmurdie and has a curfew of 7pm to 5am.
The court heard Picton’s family and friends opposed bail, but it wasn’t opposed by the Director of Public Prosecutions. Supporters of Dewar sighed with relief when his bail was granted.
At an earlier hearing last month, Dewar’s lawyer Simon Watters told the court his client’s 18-year-old cousin had been repeatedly approached by Picton at the Paramount Nightclub on Boxing Day evening.
Picton was escorted out of the nightclub before it closed at 5am and approached the girl again outside, after which Dewar approached Picton on the street.
The court was told Dewar had been assaulted from behind five minutes earlier by an unrelated person, and Watters said the 20-year-old assumed he was going to be assaulted by Picton during their interaction, leading him to “throw a punch first”.
Police prosecutors rejected Watters’ characterisation of Dewar’s interaction with Picton outside the nightclub, saying it was not reasonable for him to form the view he was going to be hit.
The prosecutor said Picton did not make any aggressive motions and had only raised a cigarette slowly to his mouth.
At Wednesday’s hearing, Judge McGrath revealed further details about the Picton incident, including that he walked away from his alleged victim, and after police arrested him, he told officers that Picton staring at him “f–ked him up” and that he shouldn’t have hit him.
Dewar was granted bail for the Picton charges at the February hearing, but not the charges related to the similar Kalamunda incident two days earlier.
During the Kalamunda incident, Dewar allegedly assaulted another man outside the Kalamunda Hotel, who he claimed was “hitting on” his younger sister.
Dewar then allegedly filmed the man as he lay unconscious on the ground and posted footage to Snapchat where he can be heard telling the man to “keep on snoring” and “don’t hit on my younger sister next time brother”.
On Wednesday, Judge McGrath said the Kalamunda victim was fortunate to walk away from that alleged assault with just a sore mouth, cut lip and chipped tooth.
McGrath revealed the victim was unconscious for about 4½ minutes.
Watters said he accepted the state case was strong and said the Snapchat footage “doesn’t paint Mr Dewar in any glory”.
“It’s certainly a nasty piece of footage, we do accept that,” he said.
He said Dewar doesn’t “effectively remember anything” from that incident.
He was granted bail due to having no previous criminal history, a stable job and a supportive family.
Picton was regarded as an election mastermind who was the driving force behind the 2021 state election record win and Labor’s 2022 federal election success in WA.
He left politics in 2022 to work for Mineral Resources as a director, and had also previously worked with the Victorian and South Australian Labor parties.
Nearly 750 people attended a memorial for him at Optus Stadium on January 23.
Tributes flowed for days after his death with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese suggesting he had no doubt he would have been sitting on a Labor government front bench one day.
Hamish Hastie is WAtoday’s state political reporter and the winner of five WA Media Awards, including the 2023 Beck Prize for best political journalism.Connect via X or email.From our partners
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