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AAP
AAP
National
Karen Sweeney

Stranger who killed man at home was 'confused': lawyer

A man found guilty of manslaughter was in a confused state when he punched a man, a court has heard. (James Ross/AAP PHOTOS) (AAP)

When a stranger came knocking at his front door, Alan Wain rebuffed him and yelled at the man who then tried to get into his caravan.

Gene Cadell Griffith kept claiming he'd slept in the caravan previously but Mr Wain tried to move him along.

After a confrontation between the pair, Mr Wain told his wife and emergency services he had been punched four times to the face by the total stranger on June 2, 2019.

Two weeks later he died of a brain bleed after life support was switched off.

Jurors found Griffith guilty of manslaughter, after a trial contesting whether the bleed was caused by the assault.

It's understandable that Mr Wain was in a heightened sense of agitation when he found a stranger on his property, Griffith's barrister John Desmond told the Victorian Supreme Court in a pre-sentence hearing on Friday.

"But so indeed was Griffith, who in his compromised state, was being confronted," Mr Desmond said.

Griffith, then 41, had been released from hospital the day before after suffering an epileptic seizure, and somehow found his way to the Wains' caravan in the front yard of their Boronia home.

He had been described by those at the scene as speaking "jibberish" before the incident.

Mr Wain's wife, Patricia, said Griffith had asked for a cigarette after the incident and asked what road they lived on, Mr Desmond said.

"Mr Wain is quite rightly confronting a complete stranger on his property.

"But from the confused state of the accused - he has been confronted by an angry person and he's not to know what may or may not happen."

Justice Stephen Kaye noted Mr Wain was about 25 years older than Griffith, and six inches shorter.

"I don't know that your client had much to be concerned about," he said.

Ms Wain said she had struggled to feel safe in her home since her husband's death, and is on medication to treat takotsubo cardiomyopathy - broken heart syndrome.

Their son said he didn't just lose his dad, but a mate.

They worked on car projects together and their last project remains unfinished without Mr Wain's advice on how to continue.

He was described by his daughter as an active grandfather who helped with school runs and after school events.

Prosecutor Angela Moran said Griffith had given inconsistent versions of events and in his evidence at the trial had tried to cast Mr Wain as the aggressor.

He'll be sentenced at a later date.

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