ANTHONY O’Grady was lured to Wickham Park as part of a plan to rob him to settle Tony Dent’s drug debt, documents tendered to Newcastle Local Court state.
A teenager, who cannot be identified, told police that Mr Dent boasted about having murdered two men in the same suburb in 1977 and threatened to kill him as well if he didn’t co-operate, a police statement said.
‘‘Every few words out of that man’s mouth were, ‘I’ve already done two life sentences, I’m not afraid to go back to jail’,’’ the teenager said.
‘‘He showed me these old paper articles of a murder in Wickham Park.’’
Mr Dent, 54, and Rodney Ray Cumming, 46, were committed for trial on Wednesday after appearing via audio-visual link from jail.
Neither entered pleas and both will face the Supreme Court in October.
They are accused of luring Mr O’Grady to the park on the night of March 25 last year after it was discovered that he had received an inheritance.
Mr Dent had been giving away drugs that he was supposed to be selling and needed money to pay his dealer, a police statement said.
The teenager, who has also been charged in relation to the murder, said Mr Dent told him to point out Mr O’Grady or he would hurt him.
‘‘I told them before I went to meet with Mr O’Grady that I’d only do it if they promised not to hit him because he would die,’’ the teenager said.
‘‘Tony Dent told him that if he went to the park and bought a bottle of alcohol that there’d be some girl there that would have sex with him, so ... Mr O’Grady wanted to do that.’’
The teen said he tried to warn Mr O’Grady, the statement said.
As the group walked across Wickham Park, ‘‘out of nowhere’’ Mr Dent hit Mr O’Grady in the jaw, the teen said.
Mr Dent then struck Mr O’Grady another two times before he fell to the ground before more punches were thrown.
The teenager said he and a woman started to walk away before, ‘‘Tony Dent whistled out and he said, ‘Oi, get back here or I will kill you’.’’
Mr O’Grady was stripped, tied up and robbed.
He died from head injuries.
Mr Dent bashed to death Alan Charles Sichter and Ronald Hamilton in a Wickham laneway on October 10, 1977, a police document stated.
‘‘Dent has been in the habit of ‘‘rolling’’ drunks and vagrants, and this time, apparently sought out these two men, battered them to death and searched them for money,’’ the document stated.
‘‘A feature was the intense damage caused to the two men, mainly internally.’’
