Josh Warneke inquest: Lawyer Tom Percy asks to call Broome man he says ‘confessed’ to murder

The lawyer representing the mother of Josh Warneke has asked the coroner examining the circumstances of the 21-year-old’s death to call a witness who allegedly “confessed” to killing him. Tom Percy made the explosive request on the third day of the coronial inquest into Mr Warneke’s death, on the final day of hearings in Broome on Wednesday. His body was discovered on the outskirts of Broome on February 26, 2010, after he left a night out with friends to walk home. Mr Warneke was last seen walking near Old Broome and Bagot roads around 2.45am. A taxi driver found him with a severe head injury shortly afterwards. State Coroner Ros Fogliani has heard competing theories about how he died, including that he was the victim of a hit-and-run or hit over the head with a blunt object. On Wednesday, Mr Percy said a Broome man, who has not been named for legal reasons, should be called as a witness given he had confessed to the murder. Ms Fogliani expressed reservations, saying: “I have concerns about calling a witness in relation to a suspected homicide.” Mr Percy responded: “Call the (witness) on and see what happens.” Ms Fogliani then remarked: “Hypothetically a witness comes (and) admits to the homicide. What effect would that have on a fair trial?” Mr Percy replied: “It might not always be the best outcome in the administration of justice. There is always two sides of the coin.” He was referring to the possibility that, if the witness agreed to provide testimony, he could apply for immunity through his lawyer. A coroner can award a certificate of immunity which means if the person gives incriminating evidence, it cannot be used against them in another prosecution. Mr Percy argued that he and his client were willing to forgo a criminal trial in order to get to the truth of what happened to Mr Warneke on the night of his death, with the lawyer telling the court: “There is public interest in the truth.” The inquest was told the Broome man had given a statement to police in which he denied any involvement in Mr Warneke’s death Ms Fogliani said she would make a ruling in due time on the issue of whether the prospective witness should be called. Later in the day, police statements from two taxi drivers who first arrived at Mr Warneke’s body were read to the court by counsel assisting the coroner Rachel Young. Neither of the men could be located to give evidence at the coronial inquest. Jim McCall was the second of the drivers to arrive on the scene. He had driven past Mr Warneke’s body dropping home a passenger and returned to see if he was all right. According to Mr McCall’s March 23, 2010, statement “the body was in the same position when he returned”. He also told police “it looked like the thongs had been sat there, and it looked unusual because they were lying next to his body”. The first person to pull over to Mr Warneke was Minwoo Park. Mr Park was dropping a female passenger home, when he saw a man lying on the road and swerved around him. According to his police statement, he and his female passenger got out of the vehicle to inspect the body. “I said, ‘Hey hey’ to the body, and saw a bit of blood around the bitumen. He looked like he had been hit by something, he looked like he was dead.” Mr Park later told authorities in a second police statement on June 22, 2010, that a couple of days after Mr Warneke’s death he picked up a fare of young white males. The court heard through his statement: “That they said he (Mr Warneke) had trouble with an Aboriginal guy and they believe he bashed him.” Two years after Mr Warneke’s death, Gene Gibson was charged with Mr Warneke’s murder, but the charge was later reduced to manslaughter due to procedural errors, including failure to provide an interpreter and improper cautioning. Gibson was sentenced to seven and a half years in jail in 2014 but was released in 2017 after the WA Court of Appeal deemed his conviction unsafe. A Corruption and Crime Commission report criticised the investigation as deeply flawed. Following his release, cold case detectives reopened the investigation and offered a reward, initially $250,000 and later increased to $1 million, for information that would lead to a conviction. . The inquest will resume in Perth on Thursday.