Beekeeper 'killed rival to steal honey'

[Hum]

A MAN accused of murdering a fellow beekeeper so he could steal his honey was nabbed after one of the stolen barrels fell on him, a court has heard.

Donald Robert Alcock, 34, is facing trial for shooting Anthony Ross Knight in the back as the beekeeper slept at his home at Woodford, in the Sunshine Coast hinterland, in May 2007.

Mr Alcock has pleaded not guilty to Mr Knight's murder.

Prosecutor Daniel Boyle told the Queensland Supreme Court in Brisbane that Mr Alcock was in serious financial trouble when he went to Mr Knight's property with the intention of stealing honey worth $40,000.

He said Mr Alcock made the decision to shoot Mr Knight when he realised he could not steal the barrels and tubs of honey without waking him.

The court was told Mr Alcock later confessed his deed, telling police: "If Tony was home I was going to have to maim him or hurt him bad if I was going to knock off the honey".

"I was only out to hurt him, I wasn't out to kill him," Mr Alcock told officers.

"I thought (the bullet) would go straight through him actually."

Mr Alcock, who lived in Tenterfield at the time, loaded the largest tubs of honey onto the back of his truck and drove them to a major honey distributor, the court was told.

But he became pinned under one of the 1400kg tubs as he tried to unload it from the truck, Mr Boyle said.

Emergency services officers were called and Mr Alcock was taken to hospital while police took photographs of the scene.

Those photos were Mr Alcock's undoing, the court heard, because they showed special markings on the tubs that identified them as Mr Knight's property.

Mr Boyle said Mr Alcock returned to Mr Knight's property after he was discharged from hospital later that day, and stole some remaining drums of honey.

Mr Knight's decomposed body was found on June 4 by a close friend, who reported it to police, the court was told.

Mr Boyle said an autopsy revealed the 41-year-old had been shot once in the back, and that a fragment of the bullet had exited from his neck, with the rest lodging in his spine.

The court heard a forensic pathologist would testify that the bullet would have immediately paralysed Mr Knight's limbs and could also have seriously hindered his ability to breathe.

The trial, before Justice Margaret White, is expected to run for a week.

source

[qdave]

thats beekeeping to the extreme.