A man allegedly fed-up with a loud party next door is accused of pouring a bucket of degreaser over his neighbour and setting her alight with a blowtorch.
Michael Gauci, 45, faced the Supreme Court of Victoria on Wednesday accused of the attempted murder of his neighbour, Shari Grey, and injuring two other neighbours just days before New Year’s Eve in 2022.
In opening the trial on Tuesday, Crown prosecutor Angela Moran told the jury they shouldn’t have any difficult in finding Gauci guilty of the charges.
Ms Grey suffered life-threatening burns from the incident and requires ongoing medical treatment, prosecutors said.
The court heard Gauci had arrived to his home in Werribee South, in Melbourne’s west, from a social event after his partner continued to phone him about the noise next door.
One partygoer would later tell police they had been singing and having fun when things took a dramatic turn for the worse.
‘We were singing along to the songs and enjoying ourselves. We were probably making a fair bit of noise because we do that when we get together,’ the man said.
The court heard Gauci had told his partner to tell his neighbours to quieten down, which she did, but the peace was short-lived.
When Gauci returned home, after 1am on December 28, he picked up a blowtorch from his kitchen bench, Ms Moran told the jury.
Witnesses claimed Gauci got into a heated argument with Ms Grey before inviting her out front to ‘sort it out’.
Ms Moran said Ms Grey went to change and then confronted Gauci and his partner out the front, with two of Ms Grey’s family members and a friend standing on the nature strip.
An altercation then ensued between Ms Grey and Gauci’s partner.
Gauci allegedly grabbed a bucket from behind his front fence and then threw about one litre of liquid, which Ms Moran alleged was a ‘pre-wash accelerant’, onto Ms Grey’s face and upper body.
‘After the liquid hit Ms Grey, the accused man – standing one metre away from her – ignites a blowtorch he was holding in his hand, causing it to emit a flame,’ Ms Moran said.
‘Ms Grey catches fire, her whole head and upper body were on fire.’
The court heard Ms Grey screamed and moved onto the grass, falling onto the ground, before police and paramedics were called.
The jury heard Ms Grey sustained burns to 70 per cent of her body from her face to her thighs.
Gauci is charged with Ms Grey’s attempted murder, but if the jury cannot find that beyond a reasonable doubt then they can find him guilty of an alternative charge of intentionally causing serious injury in circumstances of gross violence.
He is also facing two reckless conduct causing serious injury and endangering life for injuring two others in the incident.
In offering a brief defence, Gauci’s barrister John Korn said his client – who has pleaded not guilty to all charges – contested many of the facts put by the prosecution and alleged Ms Grey was the aggressor.
Gauci denied he knew there was anything flammable in the bucket or that he was holding a blowtorch.
He was holding a sawn-off .22 calibre rifle in the hopes it would ‘scare them away’, Mr Korn said.
‘The defence case is that Ms Grey continued with what she solely wanted to happen, spoiling for a fight,’ he told the jury.
‘And she attacked the accused’s wife. In the context of attacking her, the defence case will be that in that context he, in fact, at that time was holding a rifle in his right-hand, faced, as he believed he was, with three males – not just the original female, Ms Grey, that he knew was coming for a fight.’
Mr Korn claimed his client had no idea the bucket contained a flammable liquid and had tossed its contents at Ms Grey to try and break up the scuffle between her and his partner.
‘He threw a bucket which had liquid in it, which he never believed, never suspected, never considered had anything dangerous in it and certainly nothing flammable,’ he said.
‘He threw it in the direction of the two of them. His wife and Ms Grey. Primarily wanting Ms Grey to stop the fight.’
Mr Korn said the blowtorch had long been discarded by the time the fracas out front broke erupted.
‘There was a blowtorch at an earlier point in time which was discarded. He did not pick it up again or even give it any more thought after it was discarded. That will be the case that’s put on behalf of the accused,’ he said.
The trial before Justice Andrew Tinney continues.