‘One-punch killer’ Shaun McNeil weeps in court after victim’s father describe son’s suffering before death

Shaun McNeil, who punched 18-year-old Daniel Christie in 2013, wept as Daniel’s father tried describing in the Supreme Court on Friday how he felt about the death of his son who died 11 days after he was punched.

The “one-punch killer,” who killed Daniel on New Year’s Eve in 2013, is facing a sentence hearing for manslaughter. Daniel’s father, Michael, said the family had suffered 11 “mentally gruelling” days in hospital, hoping that Daniel would recover.

“The pain that I feel is located right under my sternum,” AAP quoted Michael, “It aches, it hurts and I struggle to breathe.” Daniel suffered lethal injury when his head hit the pavement after having been punched by McNeil.

ABC reported that Daniel’s father “had thoughts of taking [his] own life.” He said the death of his son had caused "pain, torment and [an] overwhelming feeling of loss." He said sometimes he wished he would “just stop breathing.”

McNeil was not found guilty of murder, but the 27-year-old was found guilty of manslaughter after a trial in June 2015. He also pleaded guilty to assault occasioning actual harm over his attack on Daniel's brother Peter and to the assault of a teenage boy earlier on New Year’s Eve in 2013.

As Michael read the victim’s statement in the court, his relatives started weeping uncontrollably in the public gallery. The father said Peter would have to live the rest of his life with the memory of the sound of his brother’s “skull cracking” and of “the smell of blood oozing from his wounds.”

The father looked at McNeil to describe the details of his son’s injuries and how he had watched him die. McNeil eventually started weeping in the dock.

McNeil was arrested soon after he had punched the teenager in Kings Cross. He is scheduled to be sentenced on Aug 27.

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