Grandmother’s alleged killer might have imagined murdering much-loved town volunteer, court told

A lawyer for the accused killer of a 70-year-old grandmother has said it’s possible he dreamt he murdered her, and that someone else committed the attack.

In his opening address to a Supreme Court jury sitting in Bendigo on Thursday, defence barrister Patrick Cronan, SC, said there was no dispute Brian Barnes, 68, and victim Merril Kelly, 70, lived in Quambatook, about 300 kilometres north-west of Melbourne, or that issues had arisen over payment for work done at the local pool.

But Cronan said Barnes denies murdering Kelly.

He said Barnes agreed he had visited his brother’s house soon after Kelly’s death but denied telling him he had murdered Kelly.

Instead, the lawyer told the jury to consider whether Barnes said he had dreamt that it had happened.

Cronan said while there might be forensic evidence to support the idea that Barnes had been inside the Kelly home, the jury shouldn’t necessarily accept the prosecution case that the accused man was the only person who could have inflicted the fatal injuries.

Whether Barnes was in an altered state or suffered injuries to his face and body due to a skateboard accident, and not during a homicide, were also things for the jury to consider, the barrister said.

“It’s important to keep an open mind. Was it Mr Barnes that caused the death … or is it a reasonable possibility it was someone else?” he said.

“Were his injuries from being scratched or falling off his skateboard?”

The jury earlier heard the prosecution’s allegation that Barnes bludgeoned Kelly, a devoted volunteer and grandmother of two, in her bed on January 21 last year about 1.40am and set her on fire on the outskirts of the tiny town of Quambatook after she refused to bake a cake for him or pay him for volunteer work. He had allegedly cable-tied her and bundled her into a ute before driving her to the town cemetery.

The work in disupute, the court heard, took place in December 2024 at a volunteer-run public swimming pool in Quambatook, where Kelly was a senior committee member.

Barnes asked Kelly to bake him a cake, before she paid him $200 for the work, the prosecution alleged. Barnes then demanded $2000 from Kelly, the court heard. The prosecution alleges that as tensions rose, Barnes killed Kelly.

Barnes, known as Bert around town, was arrested in Welshmans Reef, 180 kilometres from the crime scene. He has pleaded not guilty to murder.

Text messages showed Kelly telling him the work would be unpaid, with Barnes later replying “you have to pay me with cake”, the prosecution says.

On Thursday, Crown prosecutor Patrick Bourke said Kelly’s burnt body was found with remnants of petrol on her upper body and on the nearby ground, near the cemetery about 4.5 kilometres from her home.

It is the prosecution case, Bourke said, that Kelly sustained fatal head injuries at her home, leading to her death or unconsciousness within minutes of the attack, before she was set on fire at the cemetery.

Although Barnes allegedly told his brother that he had demanded money from Kelly before setting her on fire, Bourke said forensic evidence suggested she was already dead by the time they reached the cemetery.

He said Kelly’s blood was later found on Barnes’ ute tray, glasses and a home washing machine.

Black cable ties found around Kelly’s neck and wrists were also found on her bedroom floor and in Barnes’ house, Bourke said.

“We say his actions speak of his intention in that bedroom. Repeatedly striking Mrs Kelly to the head with such force that he fractured her skull in multiple places,” Bourke said.