An Irishman, Mr Trevor Stokes, urged a friend to help him mug someone just hours before an Australian man, Mr Greg Bebensee, was murdered in a hatchet attack, an Australian court heard yesterday.
The 26-year-old engineer from Naas, Co Kildare, said to a friend in an Irish bar: "There's a guy over there with a wallet full of cash. Help me roll him," prosecutors said.
The initial trial of Mr Stokes for the murder in June of last year of Mr Bebensee collapsed last week for legal reasons. Yesterday's opening statements marked the start of the retrial.
The court heard claims from Mr Stokes's defence that another Irish friend, Mr Lee McLaughlin, the prosecution's key witness, could be the real killer.
The accused man's barrister, Mr Jon Tippett, told the jury that Lee McLaughlin "is a person who seems to know a lot about the murder.
"You might find by the end of the case that you might not be able to find beyond reasonable doubt that Mr McLaughlin didn't commit the murder," Mr Tippett said.
Earlier, during opening statements at Darwin Supreme Court, Mr McLaughlin was exposed as a fraudster and a liar. Prosecutors admitted their witness revealed details of a credit-card fraud during the same police interview in which he claimed his camping companion, Mr Stokes, had confessed to the murder of Mr Bebensee.
Mr Rex Wilde, prosecuting, said Mr McLaughlin (26), from Ballymena, Co Antrim, was "an honest witness" and had wanted to get everything "off his chest" when he went to police two months after the murder.
But the lawyer admitted Mr McLaughlin was "dishonest" when he told police that Mr Stokes had hidden both the murder weapon and the wallet stolen from Mr Bebensee.
Mr McLaughlin later admitted he was the one who had hidden the wallet and led police to a scenic area in Darwin where it lay concealed in bushes, Mr Wilde said.
Yesterday, prosecutors said an Australian friend of Mr Stokes would give evidence that the defendant asked him for help in mugging a customer at an Irish bar.
Mr Chris Cathcart will testify that the accused man twice asked for his help in robbing a man, the court heard. Mr Cathcart told his Irish friend to "f . . . off" on the second occasion, Mr Wilde said.
The barrister said Mr Stokes's target at the Irish bar was not Mr Bebensee, a 20-year-old miner found dead early the following morning. Mr Wilde said Mr Bebensee had not been in the bar before the attack, but was drinking at a nearby hotel.
Mr Stokes faces life in prison without parole if convicted.