A man accused of abducting and causing grievous bodily harm to his own father should not be held responsible for his death 11 months later, a court has heard.
Joshua Irving Samual Williams faced Brisbane Magistrates Court on Tuesday for a committal hearing on one count of the manslaughter of his father, Neville Clive Donaldson.
Mr Donaldson, 69, died of a heart attack on April 12, 2022 at a hospital in Redcliffe, northeast of Brisbane, after spending almost 11 months in care for a traumatic brain injury allegedly caused by falling from a vehicle driven by Williams.
Williams is accused of abducting Mr Donaldson on May 16, 2021 from Banyo in Brisbane's north in an attempt to gain money from him.
Mr Donaldson was allegedly pushed head-first into the passenger's seat of a car and later exited the vehicle in unknown circumstances while it was travelling between 40 and 60km/h.
Williams's barrister Jessica Horne told Magistrate Julian Noud that he could find sufficient evidence for her client to stand trial for grievous bodily harm instead of manslaughter.
Ms Horne made an application that Williams had no case to answer for manslaughter and said the charge must fail because the evidence could not exclude the possibility that her client did not cause Mr Donaldson's death.
"The medical evidence does not exclude a hypothesis consistent with innocence, which is that Mr Donaldson would have died from the heart attack regardless of the traumatic brain injury," Ms Horne said.
The court heard from two witnesses including forensic pathologist Li Ma, who wrote an autopsy report on Mr Donaldson, and James Macdonald, a physician with expertise in caring for elderly people.
Dr Ma agreed with police prosecutor Mark Lyell that she considered Mr Donaldson's traumatic brain injury to be severe and was a contributing factor to his death due to limiting his ability to communicate with medical staff following his heart attack.
Cross-examined by Ms Horne, Dr Ma testified that Mr Donaldson had greater than 90 per cent blockages in the major vessels to his heart and he could have died if he did not suffer from a traumatic brain injury.
Dr Macdonald testified that he believed Mr Donaldson's traumatic brain injury contributed to his death as it likely prevented him from telling carers that he had tightness and pain in his chest, and therefore delayed his admission to hospital.
"He was in poor physical condition and was non-ambulant (from the brain injury) and he had limited physiological reserves to deal with the heart attack," Dr Macdonald said.
Under cross-examination, Dr Macdonald agreed that otherwise healthy people can die from heart attacks and some people do not experience prior symptoms.
Williams did not apply for bail and Mr Noud adjourned the hearing to December 5 so Ms Horne and Mr Lyell could make further submissions in response to the experts' evidence.
1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732)
Lifeline 13 11 14
Australian Associated Press
