A retired cook sentenced to jail over the frenzied stabbing death of a 43-year-old man has failed in his second attempt to appeal a murder conviction.
Trevor Spencer was first convicted by a Brisbane Supreme Court jury in November 2019 of murdering Gary Ryan, who sustained 59 wounds when he was assaulted with multiple bladed weapons more than three years earlier.
Spencer was again found guilty of murder in April 2021 when he faced a retrial after successfully appealing the first conviction.
He appealed that conviction saying a miscarriage of justice occurred due to directions given to the jury and that the verdict was unreasonable and not supported by evidence.
His argument was rejected by the Queensland Court of Appeal this week, with judges ruling there were no grounds to appeal.
Spencer's counsel told the court it was inherently unlikely he - being “a fat 70-year-old man with no prior convictions for any offences of violence…” - took part in the stabbing, the Appeal Court judgment says.
Spencer, of Dubbo, was accused of accompanying Mark Crump - who pleaded guilty to murdering Mr Ryan - from NSW to the Mundubbera property east of Maryborough on August 23, 2016 following a custody dispute.
Mr Ryan's mother found her son semi-conscious in a pool of blood after he went outside to see what a "strange looking man" wanted.
Spencer told police Crump gave him a large Crocodile Dundee knife with a 30cm blade that was "hell sharp" in case he needed it just before entering Mr Ryan's property, according to the judgment.
Crump swung a "sword or lump of steel" at Mr Ryan, pointed a crossbow at his head and pummelled him when he fell, Spencer added.
The attack on Mr Ryan was a frenzied one with at least two weapons involved, Chief Justice Helen Bowskill said in the judgment.
An autopsy found Mr Ryan suffered 59 wounds including deep cuts and stab wounds to the back and sides of his head and neck, a stab wound into his mouth, and multiple cuts to his head, neck, arms and hands.
