"Defended myself," a semi-conscious Mr Reynolds, now 24, managed to mumble to the first police officers who arrived at the unit in Coady Street in the early hours of March 8, 2019. "He was trying to hurt me, sir."

"He" was the man who police found stabbed to death inside the unit - 51-year-old Valentine Taufaao, a former friend of Mr Reynolds who Mr Reynolds told police "turned on me" and, along with Brendan Cook and Timothy Onslow, allegedly followed, kidnapped and bashed him in an attempt to extort more money from him.

With Mr Taufaao dead and Mr Reynolds suffering a depressed skull fracture after being repeatedly smashed over the head with a set of metal BMX handle bars, detectives charged Mr Reynolds with manslaughter and Mr Cook and Mr Onslow with take and detain in company with intent to get advantage and occasion actual bodily harm, an offence which carries a maximum of 25 years in jail.

But on Wednesday there was a significant development in the case with prosecutors withdrawing the manslaughter charge against Mr Reynolds.

That leaves no one accused of the death of Mr Taufaao.

But there could be more developments when Mr Cook and Mr Onslow appear in Newcastle Local Court next month.

The Newcastle Herald reported in October that the DPP and detectives were considering whether Mr Cook and Mr Onslow should be charged with Mr Taufaao's murder under a section of the law known as constructive murder, which makes a person who causes a death while committing another serious crime liable for murder, even if they did not intend to kill or seriously harm the deceased.

Constructive murder can be laid if a death is caused by an act or omission done in the course of another crime that is punishable by life imprisonment or 25 years jail.