A banana picker has pleaded guilty to manslaughter over the death of a grandfather who allegedly paid him $5,000 to amputate his leg. The jury heard that Kalman Tal, 66, asked several people if they would cut off his leg, or legs, before John Yalu, 41, agreed to perform the gruesome task for cash.
While pleading guilty to manslaughter, Yalu has pleaded not guilty to murder. A jury will decide if he intended to kill or cause grievous bodily harm. Several witnesses told the Cairns Supreme Court that Mr Tal, who claimed to be suffering leg pain, had offered them between $3,000 and $5,000 to cut off his leg from December 2021 to January 2022.
Mr Tal died after Yalu allegedly used a battery-powered circular saw to cut off his left foot in Fitzgerald Park in the early hours of February 19, 2022. He bled to death after collapsing into a gutter beside a fish and chip shop, Innisfail Seafood. His body was discovered by two brothers out walking at 3.48am.
Yalu, who earned $800 a week picking bananas on farms around Innisfail, was arrested the same day and has been in custody ever since. The jury heard that Mr Tal had previously approached three men sitting on a park bench and asked if they wanted to make $5,000 in December 2021.
Scott Torrens told the jury Mr Tal sat beside him and said: 'My leg is killing me, I'm having trouble walking, standing and the doctors won't do anything about it. I want you to cut my leg off.' Mr Tal said he was prepared to pay another person $500 to hold his leg down and that he wanted the amputation to occur between 3am and 4am when 'everyone was asleep and no one was around'. He contacted Mr Torrens several times after their initial meeting, but after thinking about it, he decided against it and blocked Mr Tal's number.
Lucas De Olivieri, who was working as a seasonal work program co-ordinator, told the court that a man aged in his 50s or 60s had approached several farm workers at their accommodation in January 2022. 'I said "I don't think anyone can help you. I think you should see a doctor or a GP to help you with that",' Mr Olivieri said. Ahne Kaihe told the jury a white man had approached farm workers in an Innisfail street in January 2022, asking them if they'd cut off his leg for cash.
A postmortem could not determine definitively if or why he was experiencing leg pain, but found that he suffered from underlying heart disease that may have accelerated his death. Mr Tal's heart was also enlarged and one of his arteries had 'significant' narrowing, a jury was told. Jurors were shown photos of the circular saw allegedly used in the amputation.
Detective Constable Deborah Brans told the jury she discovered the severed foot wrapped in Woolworths shopping bags in Mr Tal's car boot. She said the body part was found beside a bag containing three U-shaped metal stakes, a hammer, a left shoe, a circular saw with large teeth, three knives, a hacksaw, a torch and a roll of silver duct tape.
A retiree, Mr Tal had been living on the town's outskirts for about two years in a four-bedroom house with his daughter, son-in-law and their children. Following Yalu's arrest and murder charge, Vanuatu's High Commissioner to Australia Samson Vilvil Fare held an emergency meeting in Innisfail with about 300 migrant fruit pickers to call for calm among the distraught workers. The trial continues in Cairns Supreme Court.
