D’Zilva guilty

By KATH GANNAWAY
JAMES D’Zilva, 34, has been found guilty of intentionally causing injury in relation to the stabbing in December 2010 of Healesville police officer Chris Bullen.
A jury delivered its verdict before Justice Coghlan in the Supreme Court in Melbourne on Thursday, 14 June.
The jury of eight women and four men had heard evidence from a number of witnesses over three days in relation to a series of events played out in Healesville which saw Sen. Const Bullen undergo surgery for stab wounds inflicted by D’Zilva as the officer attempted to arrest him at the Shell Service Station on 7 December.
D’Zilva fled into the bush evading attempts by police to find him despite extensive searches and sightings until he was arrested on 5 January in Richmond.
Initial charges, including attempted murder, were dropped and D’Zilva last week faced the lesser charges of intentionally causing serious injury, or alternatively, recklessly causing serious injury.
The jury however cleared him of the serious injury charges, finding him guilty of intentionally causing injury. They also convicted him of theft of a packet of potato chips from the service station on 3 December.
Crown prosecutor Peter Rose, SC, in presenting the prosecution case to the jury argued that D’Zilva initiated the aggression by punching Sen Const Bullen who then retaliated.
He urged the jury to reject the defence’s argument of self-defence, saying D’Zilva’s response could not be seen as a reasonable response to the actions of Sen Const Bullen.
In an extensive address to the jury, defence lawyer Stewart Bayles covered questions of identity, intention, reliability of some of the witness accounts, and the question of what constituted a serious injury.
He said of the eight puncture wounds sustained by Sen Const Bullen only two were capable of coming close to being described as a serous injury of themselves.
He told the jury they needed to be satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that the wounds, and combination of wounds constituted a serious injury.
He argued also that for the charge of intentionally causing serious injury to be proven, the prosecution had to prove not just that it was a serious injury, but that there was an intention to cause serious injury.
Justice Coghlan described the verdicts as “fairly perceptive”.
He noted that Sen Const Bullen was not present for the verdict, but said it was not a reflection on the officer himself, the degree of his suffering or the ordeal he had gone through.
“Who’d be a policeman,” he added.
D’Zilva was remanded in custody with a plea hearing expected to be set down for this week.