A Vanuatuan banana picker has been jailed for nine years for killing an elderly man by amputating his leg with a circular saw in a public park in Far North Queensland.
John Yalu, 41, a married father-of-four, pleaded guilty to manslaughter over the death of Kalman Tal, 66, in Innisfail in February 2022, but was last week found not guilty of murder after a four-day trial.
The trial heard Mr Tal, who is schizophrenic, was offering locals cash to cut off his leg due to chronic pain and eventually paid Yalu $5,000 to amputate it with a the battery-powered saw at 3am. Yalu then panicked and left Mr Tal to bleed to death in the gutter, and did not go to police.
Yalu was sentenced to nine years in prison on Monday, and while he will be eligible for parole after serving half the sentence, the court heard he would be placed in immigration detention and deported after his release, ABC News reported.
Justice James Henry told the court Yalu had been spared a mandatory life sentence by the jury, which had taken a “merciful approach”, and took into account Yalu’s remorse, lack of criminal history and co-operation with authorities in handing down his sentence.
“At one level, what you did was done to assist, but that favourable element is far outweighed by the act you chose to render such assistance by doing such violence in such a dangerous way,” he told Yalu in sentencing.
Yalu apologised to Mr Tal’s family in court, saying through a Bislama interpreter “I would just say that what I did – I wanted to help him – but he died from what I did”.
“On behalf of my family, my tribe, my island, and my country, Vanuatu, I am very sorry, and that’s all,” he said.
Mr Tal’s family said in victim impact statements read to the court that the 66-year-old was failed by the system, with his brother lashing authorities for “failing to check on my brother’s mental health and [ensure] that he was taking his medication”.
Header image: Left, John Yalu (Facebook). Right, Kalman Tal (supplied).
