A Waverley man noticed electrical tape around the neck of a man he heard groaning on the road outside his home in 2018.
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Dylen Enkelaar was giving evidence in the trial of Corey Mitchell Gesler, 28, of Youngtown,.
Mr Gesler has pleaded not guilty to the aggravated armed robbery of Alexander Robert Friend, then 47, on January 9-10, 2018, and to doing an unlawful act with the intention of causing grievous bodily harm by punching him to the face, head and body, elbowing him to the head and striking him with a wooden baton [a chair leg] and kicking him to the face, head and body.
The Crown asserts Mr Friend was invited to a Waverley unit where four men had hatched a plan to rob him of cash and drugs.
The Crown said Mr Friend was bashed and removed from the unit, but managed to climb out of a utility and fell onto the road near the corner of Naroo Street and Tasman Highway.
Mr Enkelaar said he was on his deck having a cigarette when he saw the man who had facial injuries and was gurgling. He said he was wearing jeans.
He said after calling triple zero he went back outside to see that the man had crawled to the nature strip causing his jeans to come off.
"Did he say anything," crown prosecutor Tamila Smith asked.
"He was trying to," Mr Enkelaar said.
"Did you notice anything?," she asked.
"I noticed he had electrical tape around his neck," he said.
Defence counsel Patrick O'Halloran asked Mr Enkelaar if he was present when police asked him if he had done the injuries to himself.
"He indicated no by shaking his head," Mr O' Halloran asked.
"Yes," he said.
"He nodded when asked if it was caused by someone else," he asked.
"Yes," he replied.
"When he was asked if it was by someone he knew he nodded?," he asked.
"Yes," Mr Enkelaar said.
Paramedic Angela Hodgson said she heard audible gurgling and saw tape wound tightly around his neck when the ambulance arrived at 12.39am.
She said she asked him his name, what happened and whether a weapon was used.
"He was not able to answer most questions because of significant respiratory distress," she said.
She said there was significant amount of blood on his head and face.
"He was spitting blood and it was draining from his nose and mouth," Ms Hodgson said.
In the ambulance he was assisted by the provision of oxygen, insertion of an intravenous drip and pain relief.
Mr O' Halloran asked: "Beside the road did you observe the male to have free flowing bright red blood from the mouth."
"Yes," Ms Hodgson replied.
Senior Constable Donna Stafford said that hair was visible on the road and there were frequent red brown stains.
Police used 13 scene markers to indicate Mr Friend's path from the road to nature strip.
Senior Constable Stafford also photographed jeans in the gutter and a small metal stud from the top of the jeans and a singlet he was wearing.
The jury heard this week that Mr Friend was unconscious for five weeks and spent a total of 10 weeks in hospital.
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Nick Clark
I am the Supreme and Magistrates Court reporter for the Examiner for the past 18 months. My journalism career has clicked over 30 years and encompasses four different spells at Tasmanian newspapers.
I am the Supreme and Magistrates Court reporter for the Examiner for the past 18 months. My journalism career has clicked over 30 years and encompasses four different spells at Tasmanian newspapers.
