A MAN who murdered his elderly and frail boyfriend by forcing his dentures down his throat during "rough sex" at a boarding house in Mayfield in 2021 left the 64-year-old's body in his bedroom for four days before it was discovered by police.
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Zachary Joel Dowling, now 36, appeared in Newcastle Local Court on Wednesday via audio visual link from Goulburn Correctional Centre where he pleaded guilty to murdering his "on-again, off-again" boyfriend, Brian O'Sullivan.
Prosecutors withdrew a charge of manslaughter and Dowling will be sentenced in the NSW Supreme Court later in the year.
The pair had been in a relationship, marred by numerous acts of domestic violence and Dowling's alcoholism, since at least 2004, according to an agreed statement of facts.
Neighbours routinely called police to report that Dowling was intoxicated and assaulting Mr O'Sullivan.
Dowling was living at a boarding house in Regent Street when he and Mr O'Sullivan arrived on the afternoon of June 29, 2021.
And sometime between about 5.30pm and 7pm, Dowling murdered Mr O'Sullivan inside his bedroom by forcing his dentures down into the back of his throat, choking him.
During a series of recorded phone calls made from jail after Dowling's arrest, he admitted to choking Mr O'Sullivan.
"I must have punched him around," Dowling said on one of the calls. "And the dentures must have went down his throat when I was choking him. Bit of angry foreplay ... didn't know the dentures were down the neck." Finally, his friend asked Dowling if he missed his boyfriend. "Nah, not one little bit," Dowling replied.
Brian is dead. He's been dead since Tuesday.
- Zachary Dowling said in a phone call to a friend.
