Disabled teen says stabbing was self-defence

(CNS): Renaldo Taylor (19), who is facing charges of wounding his stepfather last June, told police that he stabbed Damian Wellington in self-defence during an angry attack at their North Side home. As Taylor’s trial drew to a close in Grand Court on Tuesday, a jury heard that the teenager, who lost a leg in a motorcycle accident, was the victim at the hands of Wellington, who was convicted of abuse for violent attacks on Taylor when he was a child.

Wellington sustained several non-life-threatening stab wounds during the altercation with his stepson on the night of 26 June, when Taylor claims he was the victim of his stepfather’s angry mood.

As prosecutor Greg Walcolm and Taylor’s defence attorney, Jonathon Hughes, summed up both sides of the case for the jury, they said the jury would have to decide who started the fight, and if it was not Taylor, whether or not it truly was reasonable self-defence, given all of the circumstances in what both lawyers described as a sad case.

During the trial, the jury members heard evidence from Taylor’s mother, who was a witness to the violence. They also listened to an account given by Wellington, which conflicted with his wife’s testimony, and the interview and statement that Taylor gave to police the morning after the incident, which happened when he was 18 years old.

From the beginning, Taylor told police that he had been in his room relaxing on his bed without his prosthetic leg, which he had removed earlier. When his stepfather returned home from work, he was infuriated when he saw that the teenager had hung a flag in his bedroom doorway. Several months previously the door on his bedroom had been removed by Wellington, who was angry with Taylor for smoking cigarettes.

Wellington yanked down the flag and began shouting at Taylor. The teenager said his stepfather then picked up various objects and began flinging them around the room and at him, shouting at him angrily. Taylor, who his mother testified had been calm before his stepfather’s return, was eventually angry and told Wellington he was a “watchman”, which further angered the older man.

Wellington then went to the kitchen, where, according to his wife, he picked up a knife and began cutting mangoes. Taylor said he was worried that his stepfather would return to his room with a weapon, as it was not an uncommon occurrence for him to abuse his stepson.

So when his stepfather returned to the room and continued his angry attack, he had hopped off the bed and tried to get Wellington into a headlock, Taylor said. But the disabled teenager said he was off balance and too close to Wellington and he could not do it, and as a result he picked up what seems to have been a small knife kept on his bedside table.

He stabbed Wellington several times, believing that his stepfather was also armed. However, despite evidence from Taylor’s mother, Wellington denied ever touching a knife that night or cutting mangoes.

After he was arrested, Taylor had told police that his account could be verified by the CCTV camera his stepfather and mother had in the house. He told the officers that the camera was connected to an app on his mother’s phone and he was aware that his parents had watched footage on it previously.

But despite what could have been extremely important evidence in the case, the officers involved never recovered any footage. Four days before police seized the camera, they had warned Wellington that they intended to take the camera and what might be on it, which might be used in the case. But by the time the SD card was taken by police, they were unable to recover any footage.

The officer in the case claimed he had not rushed to collect the camera and potential related footage because when he visited the house it was lying on its side, not connected to anything, and appeared dusty and unused. However, when he was on the stand, Wellington had said nothing about the camera not working or not being connected.

As he summed up the case for the jury, Hughes said that with the benefit of that footage the jury’s decision would have been much easier but without that, it was down to the credibility of those involved.

He argued that Taylor’s history with his stepfather, given Wellington’s conviction for serious abuse of him as a child, could easily have led the teenager to believe he was in serious danger that night from his long-time abuser. Wellington was convicted of child abuse after revelations that for years he had violently assaulted Taylor with several weapons, including wheelbarrow handles and electrical chords, as well as punching and strangling the young boy.

The crown argued that there was no evidence that Wellington had a weapon and that it was Taylor who had attacked his stepfather after he ripped down the flag. Walcolm suggested that the one-legged boy could not have fought off Wellington if he had had a knife and that there was no evidence that the man was armed. The prosecutor said the teenager had intended to hurt his stepfather, fuelled by that history of abuse, as he was heard to say he had wanted to kill him during the stabbing and was willing to go to jail for the rest of his life.

In the end, Wellington was treated for seven small incisions inflicted with a sharp instrument, according to a doctor’s report. But he was released shortly after the incident since none of the individual wounds, mostly to his arms and the side of his body, were serious.

The case continues.