Barnes denies confessing Quambatook murder to his brother, trial hears

Brian Robert Barnes says he never confessed to his brother. The 68-year-old is on trial in the Supreme Court in Bendigo, accused of murdering 70-year-old Merril Kelly in her Quambatook bedroom and burning her body at the town cemetery in January 2025. He has pleaded not guilty.

Defence barrister David Cronin SC told the jury on Monday that Barnes denies telling his brother words to the effect of, 'I have premeditated murdered someone'. 'There's no dispute he went to his brother's house and talked to him,' Cronin said. 'He denies that he said those words.' Barnes also denies an alleged remark that Kelly 'scratched me up', the court heard.

Cronin urged the jury to weigh whether Barnes's injuries came from a skateboard fall — the explanation the court heard he gave friends — and warned against assuming he was the only person who could have inflicted the fatal blows. 'You shouldn't necessarily accept that evidence,' he said of the suggestion Barnes had a physical interaction with Kelly at her home.

Crown prosecutor Patrick Bourke KC closed his opening address by describing what he called a 'violent, vicious attack' that showed an intent to kill or seriously injure. He told the court Barnes struck the 70-year-old repeatedly in the head with enough force to fracture her skull in multiple places, and that petrol was poured over the upper half of her body at the cemetery before it was lit.

The prosecution's case includes a blue toenail found in the driveway of Kelly's home, an open packet of zip ties at Barnes's house and another in the tray of his ute. Bourke said DNA analysis found blood that was 'statistically' Kelly's in the ute's tray, inside Barnes's washing machine and on his glasses.

The court heard the two were locked in a dispute dating to November 2024 over money Barnes said he was owed for work at the Quambatook swimming pool, where Kelly served as president of the community-run committee. The day before the alleged murder, Barnes was banned from the pool after an altercation with a volunteer. Evidence starts Tuesday.