A 31-YEAR-OLD MAN has pleaded guilty to the murder of an Irish backpacker at a court in Australia.
Luke James Wentholt, who last month had entered a ‘not guilty’ plea, admitted to the murder of David Greene appearing at the Supreme Court of Victoria in Melbourne.
The Herald Sun reported that Wentholt – who was appearing by video link from prison – took a long pause before entering his ‘guilty’ plea.
He also pleaded guilty to one count of causing serious injury to another Irish man, David Byas, during the incident at a boarding house in St Kilda, outside Melbourne, last August.
Greene died at the Alfred Hospital two weeks after the attack, while Byas was in a coma for four days as a result of the incident.
Wentholt’s former girlfriend Shayla Pullen had told an earlier hearing that she had tried to stop her then-partner from his “forceful stomping” on Greene and Byas.
She said she believed Wentholt was drunk, and had been aggravated by Greene after the Dubliner made jokes about having accidentally seen Pullen without her clothes on earlier that week.
Wentholt had asked Greene to speak privately to him outside – but sounds of smashing and yelling were heard shortly afterwards.
When she went to investigate, she said she saw Wentholt stomping his bare foot on Greene’s head, while Byas lay face down on the ground.
Wentholt had been previously convicted of beating and robbing a prostitute when she refused to refund him after one encounter.
He was sentenced to three-and-a-half years in jail on that occasion.
Wentholt will appear in court again on July 30 in connection with his latest pleas.
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