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Gay bash pair guilty of murder

Warren Batchelor was bashed to death in a public toilet.Picture: Starobserver.com.au

Two men have been convicted of murdering a former Sydney DJ in a bashing described by a prosecutor as a vigilante attack to rid a Caversham park of gay men.

A Supreme Court jury of five women and seven men deliberated for 4 1/2 hours today before finding Daniel Wade Jones and Mark Taylor guilty of murdering Warren Gerard Batchelor.

Mr Batchelor's family cried quietly in the back of the court as the verdicts were delivered after a two week trial.

Taylor and Jones remained emotionless in the dock.

Mr Batchelor died a few days after he was attacked in a public toilet block at the Middle Swan Reserve in November 2013.

During the trial, the jury was told Jones and Taylor - strangers to Mr Batchelor - had burst into the disabled toilet and attacked Mr Batchelor while he was in the cubicle with another man.

Taylor's four young children were nearby during the attack and two of them were called as prosecution witnesses in the case against their father.

Prosecutor Bruno Fiannaca told the court that Taylor had made derogatory remarks and punched and kicked Mr Batchelor.

Mr Fiannaca said Jones repeatedly hit the 48-year-old's head with a metal pole.

Mr Batchelor had a fractured skull, bleeding, brain swelling and a blood clot that pushed his brain downwards.

Mr Fiannaca told the jury that the public toilet block appeared to be a well-known meeting place for homosexual men.

Taylor elected to give evidence, testifying that he had wanted to tell the men to stop scaring his children and had only wanted to talk when when he forced open the toilet door.

Taylor admitted he had a fist fight with the other man inside the toilet, but denied touching Mr Batchelor.

He blamed Jones for bashing Mr Batchelor.

Jones did not give evidence, but denied involvement in Mr Batchelor's death.

The jury's verdicts rejected the men's denials.

The man who was inside the cubicle with Mr Batchelor, who had met the dead man just minutes before the attack, told the jury his life had flashed before his eyes during the attack.

The man, whose name is suppressed, gave evidence that escaped when one of the men threatened to stab him with a butcher's knife.

Taylor and Jones were remanded in custody for sentencing submissions to be made on April 17.


Outside court, a statement was read on behalf of Mr Batchelor's family paying tribute to their son and brother.

"Warren was a kind, loving and caring man, we miss him every day," the family said. "We are very pleased with the verdicts. We thank everyone."