Accused sobs as murder charge brought

A sobbing Luke James Wentholt has been remanded in custody until Dec 18 for the murder of Dublin backpacker David Greene and for a vicious assault on David Byas at a Melbourne boarding house on Aug 26.

Initially charged with two counts each of intentionally causing serious injury and recklessly causing serious injury assault, Mr Wentholt, aged 31, who was jailed in 2009 for attacking a prostitute, appeared in Melbourne Magistrates Court via videolink from remand to face the upgraded charges.

Victoria Police confirmed Mr Greene travelled to Australia about two years ago on a working visa. Mr Byas, aged 28, remains in hospital in a serious condition.

Natalie Webster of the Victoria Police provided a summary of the new charges which led to the postponement of the accused’s court appearance on Oct 8.

“The offences the accused has been charged with are one count of murder, one count of intentionally causing serious injury, three counts of intentionally causing injury, and three counts of common law assault,” she said. “He was remanded to re-appear at Melbourne Magistrates’ Court on Dec 18 and his court appearance on Oct 8 has therefore been cancelled.”

Sgt Creina Rose O’Grady confirmed the accused was likely to serve a lengthy prison sentence.

“We can’t go into too many details as the accused has been charged but he is in very serious trouble,” said Sgt O’Grady.

“As I have reiterated previously, having checked with homicide, there was a total of 11 people staying in the house, but there was never a party on the night of the attack, and the accused did not attack the backpackers with a hammer.

“Whatever excuses he comes up with, there is a lot of evidence against him.”

A homicide detective investigating the case said Mr Wentholt stamped on the backpackers’ heads after drinking heavily. “He went on a rampage, attacking everyone in the house, and stamping on the heads of the two Irishmen,” he said.

Mr Greene’s parents, Aidan and Catherine, left Dublin the day after the assault to be at their son’s bedside. Mr Byas’s parents, Fran and Philomena, also travelled to Australia.

The two men had not been travelling together, but had known each other as they grew up in Cabinteely.