![\"nsw](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/9c6c3020284d5b76a33369a7c2160ffa.jpeg\")
<\/p>\nA professional cage fighter on trial for murdering his best friend told police he accidentally kicked him in the head while “mucking around” during a sparring session, a Sydney jury has been told.<\/p>\n
Bradley Dusan Fletcher was celebrating moving into a rental property in Melonba, near Mount Druitt, with his friend Bradley Evennett one afternoon in March 2024.<\/p>\n
The 37-year-old mixed martial arts fighter, who the Crown says “trained religiously to hone his craft”, was lightly sparring with Mr Evennett and showing some techniques, and both consumed alcohol and cocaine.<\/p>\n
Crown Prosecutor Kate Ratcliffe said that according to Mr Fletcher’s girlfriend, the two were drunk but “in a bubbly mood” when she left the property.<\/p>\n
“The two mates were having a good time, but things changed,” she said during an opening address.<\/p>\n
Panicked call to girlfriend<\/p>\n
Ms Ratcliffe\u00a0said the accused “became angry” and deployed his martial arts skills.<\/p>\n
“The accused repeatedly struck the deceased to his head and torso, causing the deceased’s death.”<\/p>\n
Mr Evennett, 32, had a genetic condition known as brittle bone disease that was diagnosed when he was 12 years old.<\/p>\n
Ms Ratcliffe said Mr Fletcher was aware of that condition and there had been no previous altercations between them.<\/p>\n
That evening, Mr Fletcher called his girlfriend and told her Mr Evennett had fallen over and was not breathing.<\/p>\n
Jurors heard that she suggested he call an ambulance, but the accused told her to “hurry up and just get here”.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
A jury heard Mr Fletcher told police he had accidentally kicked his friend in the head while “mucking around”. (ABC News: Sean Tarek Goodwin)<\/p>\n
Mr Fletcher’s girlfriend is expected to give evidence of seeing blood-staining on the floor around the premises, Mr Evennett lying face down in the backyard and Mr Fletcher pacing.<\/p>\n
She left and at some stage, Mr Fletcher used Mr Evennett’s car as transport and left his body near a footpath in a nearby street.<\/p>\n
After his arrest, the accused told police the two were “sparring”.<\/p>\n
“I promise you boys it was an accident, man,” he said, according to Ms Ratcliffe.<\/p>\n
“He’s my best friend \u2026 I accidentally killed my best friend. Kicked him in the head.”<\/p>\n
He referred to being “coked up” and panicking when he realised Mr Evennett had stopped breathing.<\/p>\n
Deceased became ‘hostile’ after blow to ribs<\/p>\n
Mr Fletcher also said the deceased “got a bit hostile” after being hit in the ribs.<\/p>\n
“I’m a pro cage fighter, I shouldn’t be doing that sh*t, you know. I should have called police, whatever, I panicked,” he told police.<\/p>\n
The jury is expected to hear from a forensic pathologist that the cause of death was multiple blunt force injuries.<\/p>\n
That expert was also of the opinion that Mr Evennett’s condition, Osteogenesis Imperfecta Type 1, played no real part in his death.<\/p>\n
Mr Fletcher pleaded not guilty to murder but guilty to manslaughter. However, the Crown did not accept the manslaughter plea.<\/p>\n
Defence counsel James Trevallion SC said Mr Evennett took exception to being hit in the ribs during the sparring and the men removed their boxing gloves and went inside.<\/p>\n
But there were further challenges, and they went back outside to continue sparring.<\/p>\n
“The hits became more serious. The tensions rose, and the tensions rose for both of them,” he said during his opening address.<\/p>\n
Mr Trevallion said the sparring was still in the context of the pair being good friends and his client did not intend to really injure Mr Evennett.<\/p>\n
He said the primary issue during the trial will be whether Mr Fletcher intended to cause serious injury, which the Crown will be required to prove beyond reasonable doubt.<\/p>\n
Mr Trevallion said both men were affected by alcohol and cocaine at the time, urging the jury not to “morally judge them” for their use of the substance.<\/p>\n
The Crown will argue that the “extensive” physical assaults would lead jurors to “inevitably conclude” there was an intention to cause serious injury.<\/p>\n
“It matters not that he regretted it later,” Ms Ratcliffe said.<\/p>\n
“That’s not the time that you consider his intention. It’s at the time of the infliction of the assaults.”<\/p>\n
Justice Richard Weinstein urged jurors to listen to all of the evidence, the closing addresses and his summing up before making up their minds at the end of the trial, which is expected to last for up to four weeks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A professional cage fighter on trial for murdering his best friend told police he accidentally kicked him in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":609069,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[296062,2973,53168,43,55313,2968,44,2733,670,296063,41,39,42,40],"class_list":{"0":"post-609068","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-cage-fighter","9":"tag-courts","10":"tag-deaths","11":"tag-headlines","12":"tag-jury","13":"tag-murder","14":"tag-news","15":"tag-nsw","16":"tag-sydney","17":"tag-sydney-courts","18":"tag-top-news","19":"tag-top-stories","20":"tag-topnews","21":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/609068","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=609068"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/609068\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/609069"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=609068"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=609068"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=609068"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}