Shannon Finemore never made it home from Melbourne Cup celebrations three years ago. The 37-year-old and Scott McGillivrey were walking home in Brisbane’s Fortitude Valley when two other men came down from a first floor apartment to confront them. Michael Trevor Royce Collins was armed with a crowbar, alongside his mate Harley James Raithby Hoodless. What followed was a completely gratuitous and unnecessary act of violence, crown prosecutor David Finch told a Brisbane court on Tuesday.
footage shows Collins grab the crowbar from his garage as he walked from the apartment to the street with Hoodless following an exchange. Collins didn’t use the crowbar but Hoodless, now aged 31, punched Finemore in the head, causing him to fall to the ground. He never regained consciousness. Finemore died days later in hospital, with his mother telling the court the family had to make the heart-wrenching decision to discontinue his life support.