A man whose body was found at a Housing NSW complex in Mangerton last year had been savagely beaten and – once dead –thrown from a second-storey apartment and left to rot inside a shared laundry for 13 days, a court has heard.
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Alleged details of 56-year-old Mark Dower’s miserable demise were aired in Wollongong Local Court on Friday, as one of two men charged with his murder sought bail.
The Crown will attempt to prove Mr Dower was murdered as part of a joint criminal enterprise involving Paul William Turner, now 49, and a resident of the Crana Place complex, Mark Kenneth Jenkin, 45. Crown documents considered by Magistrate Michael Stoddart allege Jenkin had a history of assaulting and detaining vulnerable people within the Mangerton area until he could access their bank accounts.
The Crown will allege Jenkin targeted Mr Dower in this way and –aware that Mr Dower received a substantial payment each month – regularly took money from him.
It was from Jenkin’s second-story unit that Mr Dower’s body was allegedly thrown on April 3, 2015.
The Crown will allege Jenkin and Turner were present when Mr Dower was seriously injured less than two weeks earlier. Several people allegedly saw Mr Dower inside Jenkin’s unit in the days that followed – still alive, but sometimes unresponsive or making grunting noises, with a badly bruised face.
Police were acting on a late-night tip-off when they gained entry to the complex’s padlocked laundry on April 16 and found Mr Dower’s body inside a surfboard bag. His injuries included 27 recent rib fractures, severe facial bruising and he had ingested a tooth, prior to death.
According to the Crown documents, Mr Dower had no fixed place of abode and would seek accommodation with friends in the Mangerton area, or at Wollongong Hospital.
He once worked as an English language teacher in Finland and as a result would receive a monthly super payment from Finland, as well as an Australian and Finnish pension.
Jenkin faces a further charge of soliciting his brother-in-law, Stuart Cowan, to murder a female witness key to the Crown case.
Jenkin was in jail on unrelated charges on July 17, when he allegedly contacted Cowan using a contraband mobile phone.
Cowan allegedly agreed to the plot and took steps to deliver the woman a “hotshot” – a lethally large dose – of heroin.
Cowan stands accused of conspiring to murder the female witness, and acting as an accessory after the fact, to the murder of Mr Dower.
It is alleged by police that upon being charged Mr Turner said “I did nothing but try and help the bloke … he was alive when I left. There was only one evil c—t in the room”.
Magistrate Stoddart noted Turner’s lengthy criminal record, but also his lack of violent prior offending.
Acting for Turner, defence lawyer Aloysius Robinson said, “he’s been nicked so many times Your Honour, that noticeable by their absence is any offences of violence.
“He’s not a violent man. He’s an addict and a thief,” Mr Robinson said.
Bail was refused.
The case returns to court February 2.