Man jailed for at least 17 years for murder over threesome
A West Australian fly-in fly-out worker who fatally stabbed a man who had a threesome with his girlfriend while he was away working on an oil rig will spend at least 17 years behind bars.
Ryan Christopher Hawke repeatedly stabbed Mark Colin Koller, 50, at the Crystal Brook Caravan Park in Orange Grove, Perth, in April 2014.
Hawke went on trial twice for the offence, having successfully appealed the first conviction.
The West Australian Supreme Court heard a drug-addled Hawke was enraged after he found out his girlfriend had engaged in a threesome with Mr Koller and his partner, and stabbed the victim six times with a knife during a confrontation outside Mr Koller’s caravan.
“He was very annoyed someone had done this with his woman,” prosecutor Sean O’Sullivan said during his opening address in November.
Hawke, who had been using drugs in the lead-up to the attack, had argued self-defence, with his lawyer Justine Fisher saying some witnesses described Mr Koller as the aggressor.
The prosecutor said Mr Koller tried to fend Hawke off with a gas bottle but he either dropped it or it was knocked out of his hands, and rejected the suggestion the victim was swinging a screwdriver.
Hawke was sentenced on Monday to life in jail, bowing his head when he heard the minimum term.
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Outside court, Mr Koller’s older brother Mike said his best friend had been torn from his life.
“Mark was a rogue and there’s no coming away from that. However, he was still a human being and didn’t deserve to be left laying in the dirt drowning in his own blood,” he told reporters.
He said he sincerely hoped Hawke, a father of three, would get his life together in prison.
“He’s going to be 50 years old when he gets out of jail – that’s the same age Mark was when he died – and hopefully he does get his life back together and uses what’s available in the system and doesn’t become a victim of the system.
“Because that’s a sad case too.
“Hopefully his children will take away from this that these are the effects of drug use in our society.”
