Manslaughter plea in OBH death

A man has pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of Andy Marshall, who died after being pushed out of the upstairs window of Cottesloe's Ocean Beach Hotel - but prosecutors will still continue to try him for murder.

Stefan Pahia Schmidt is being retried for the murder of Andy Marshall, who died after being pushed by Mr Schmidt while talking to a woman at the beachfront pub on May 8, 2011.

Mr Schmidt had been convicted of murder after a jury trial, but won an appeal against his conviction in a unanimous decision delivered by three judges of the Court of Appeal last year.

A retrial without a jury was ordered, which began today in front of Supreme Court Justice John McKechnie.

At the commencement of the retrial, Mr Schmidt said he would plead guilty to the manslaughter of Mr Marshall, but denied murdering him.

Prosecutor Bruno Fiannaca said they would not accept that plea, and continued with the trial.

Mr Fiannaca described how Mr Schmidt, in a "fit of rage" had pushed Mr Marshall so hard he had crashed through the window and fell five metres to the floor below.

CCTV footage from inside the hotel of the build up to the push was shown to the court, as was Mr Marshall landing on the footpath outside.

Mr Schmidt can then be seen walking out of the hotel, glancing towards Mr Marshall's seriously injured body, before disappearing.

Mr Fiannaca said text messages sent by Mr Schmidt to a friend and his girlfriend would showed he was not shocked by the incident.

Defence lawyer Colin Lovitt QC said that Mr Schmidt had not intended to push Mr Marshall through the window - but his actions had been violent and a "gross overreaction".

"He didn't have any intent to cause serious injuries, or any injuries at all really," Mr Lovitt said.

"These are terribly sad and very unfortunate series of events, and it must be said how sorry we all are.

"But it all boils down to whether (Mr Schmidt) intended to injure this man ... We say the prosecution case falls well short of that."

The retrial was ordered after the appeal court ruled there had been a miscarriage of justice because the trial judge did not adequately direct the jury on an essential element of the case against Mr Schmidt.

The retrial is scheduled to last three weeks