A NARROW ESCAPE THANKS TO DNA

A caretaker feared for his life during a violent home invasion that only ended when one of his attackers turned on the other and shot him, the Brisbane Supreme Court was told yesterday. Michael William Weir had to pause to compose himself several times yesterday as he recounted how he was beaten, drugged, and threatened with a gun and knife for hours by two men almost nine years ago.

Weir was giving evidence against Darren Michael Golledge, 39, who has pleaded not guilty to the September 11, 1997, attack and murdering his alleged co-offender Tony Robert Stevens at the Yatala site of the former Bullens' African Lion Safari Park.

The court heard Weir was the caretaker at the 300-acre site but had arranged for Stevens to take on the role for several months while he visited family in Sydney. Weir said the pair had argued several times before September 11 when he was lured to Stevens's home and king-hit from behind by Golledge – a man he had never met before and heard referred to as Fraser during the incident. The court heard Weir was bound with tape, blindfolded, threatened and assaulted for hours before being forced to sign a pledge to leave the property. He was also forced to make a video confessing to being a drug dealer and filming four marijuana plants he had grown hydroponically in his house. He said that after he was taken back to his bedroom, he heard whispering and then a loud gunshot. "I didn't know if it was a warning shot or if they had missed me," he said.

Weir said Golledge then told him he had shot Stevens and he would live if he agreed to dispose of the body. When Weir agreed, he had been told to wait for half an hour before getting off the bed. He had checked that Stevens was dead before going to the front gate of the property, where two council workers called emergency services.

Crown prosecutor Peter Feeney said Weir was initially charged with Stevens's murder after bloodstains were found on his clothes, but the investigation changed focus when improved DNA testing concluded the blood was his own.

The court was told Weir did not see Golledge during the attack, but could recognise his voice as that of his second attacker. Golledge was subsequently arrested and charged. The trial before Justice John Byrne and the seven-woman, five-man jury continues today.

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