A man has admitted to fatally bashing a well-known surfer on Sydney’s northern beaches during a dispute in which he accused him of stealing $50.
Guy Haymes was set upon by Jayson Brett Dal Molin inside a friend’s unit in Manly in late February last year.
The 59-year-old, who was known as Creature to his friends, had poor heart function and had a pacemaker, a statement of agreed facts before the Local Court revealed.
Last week, 42-year-old Molin pleaded guilty to manslaughter and several other charges, including one count of murder, were withdrawn.
The court documents revealed Molin went to the Manly unit to obtain marijuana, which he smoked before he “crashed out” on a bed.
In the afternoon, Molin began accusing Mr Haymes and two other men in the unit of stealing $50 which he had lost.
“Someone’s got my 50 bucks. No-one’s going anywhere until I get my 50 bucks,” he told the trio.
Mr Haymes was a keen surfer who was well-known in the northern beaches community. (Supplied: NSW Police)
‘Leave him alone. He’s an old man’
According to the agreed facts, he then locked the front door and told the others to “work it out between you”.
He forced Mr Haymes to take off his clothes and prove he did not have cash hidden on him, before he repeatedly hit the surfer on the head.
“Come on, mate. Leave him alone. He’s an old man,” one of the other men told Molin.
Molin replied, “I don’t care” until one of the others gave him $50 of his own money to resolve the dispute.
“You can’t keep beating him up. He’s got a heart problem,” that man said.
Mr Haymes protested that he had not stolen the money and Molin again punched him in the face, before attempting to stomp on him.
According to the facts, one of the other men went to a neighbour’s unit and was woken up to Molin standing over him and shaking him.
“I’ve f***ing battered the c***,” he is recorded in the documents as saying.
“You need to make sure he stays alive. I need you to go back up there and look after him for me.”
One of the other men later called Triple Zero (000) but would not give details about the assault, telling an operator, “I don’t want to be f***ing killed”.
Molin was seen dragging Mr Haymes into a bedroom and into a bed.
When paramedics arrived, he was unable to respond verbally and was taken to hospital.
Molin claimed to have arrived in the unit 20 minutes prior and said Mr Haymes had “been like that” when he arrived.
Mr Haymes remained in hospital but his condition did not improve and he died from a traumatic brain injury on March 15.
Victim’s phone used for four months after death
Molin took Mr Haymes’s phone and used it for nearly four months with different SIM cards, the court documents revealed.
In intercepted phone calls, he made several admissions, including that he “went overboard” because “someone owed me money”.
In a police interview, he denied involvement in Mr Haymes’s death but conceded he had smoked ice in the unit that day.
Mark Haymes made an impassioned plea to the public for further information surrounding his brother’s death. (Supplied)
According to an analysis of his phone, he conducted internet searches for “man from manly get bashed and die” in May and June 2024.
Molin’s case will now move to the District Court for sentence, where it will first be mentioned later this month.
Through his plea, he accepted responsibility for the death by repeatedly striking Mr Haymes with an intention to inflict actual bodily harm, then failing to help or call an ambulance.
Mr Haymes’s brother, Mark, has previously spoken publicly about his brother as police made an appeal for information.
He described him as fun-loving, sociable and kind-hearted and said his entire family was “in disbelief” that his life had been cut short.