A MAN accused of a serious domestic violence assault at Kurri Kurri last year will have his charges upgraded to manslaughter and the one-punch law assault causing death, the Newcastle Herald can reveal.
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Robert Raymond Dennehy, of Hughes Close, Kurri Kurri, will appear in Newcastle Local Court on Wednesday where the DPP will finalise the charges against the 49-year-old.
Mr Dennehy was charged last year with reckless grievous bodily harm and assault occasioning actual bodily harm (both domestic violence related) after an alleged assault on Tony Williams at a unit in Hughes Close at Kurri Kurri about 7pm on October 6.
But after Williams' death, a DPP solicitor said in court in June that an autopsy was going to be conducted and more charges could be laid against Mr Dennehy.
The matter was mentioned again late last month and the DPP applied for a two-week adjournment for fresh charges to be laid.
The Herald can reveal that those charges include manslaughter, reckless wounding and the relatively new one-punch laws assault causing death while intoxicated and assault causing death, which were introduced after a number of highly publicised one-punch deaths in NSW, including the death of 18-year-olds Thomas Kelly and Daniel Christie in Kings Cross in 2012 and 2013.
The charge of assault causing death while intoxicated carries a maximum penalty of 25 years in jail, with a mandatory minimum sentence of at least eight years.
Mr Dennehy has remained behind bars since he was arrested by detectives on October 16 last year.
