A fruit picker will face trial accused of murdering a grandfather whose leg was allegedly cut off with a circular saw outside a fish and chip shop in Far North Queensland four years ago.
Vanuatuan John Yalu, 40, earned $800 a week picking bananas on farms around Innisfail when police allege local resident Kalman Tal, 66, asked him to amputate his lower left leg for him.
But Mr Tal died after the alleged impromptu surgery with the battery-powered saw at the town’s riverfront Fitzgerald Park in the early hours of February 19, 2022.
He allegedly bled to death after collapsing into a gutter next to Innisfail Seafood, and his body was discovered at 3.48am by two brothers out walking.
Yalu was arrested the same day and has been in custody ever since, with the case stalled in the Queensland legal system.
Supreme Court judge Justice James Henry ordered Yalu to be arraigned to enter a plea and the court has now told Daily Mail the trial will begin in Cairns on May 18.
Yalu will require a Bislama interpreter for his trial, while several witnesses will also require interpreters to give evidence.
The case rocked Innisfail and the sleepy township’s migrant worker community who live in a series of converted old houses in its centre known as the Non-resident Workers Accommodation Hub.
Vanuatuan worker John Yalu, 40, will face trial charged with the amputation murder of grandfather Kalman Tal who died in 2022 after his leg was allegedly removed with a circular saw
Kalman Tal (pictured with his daughter) had been living in Innisfail for about two years when he allegedly asked a migrant fruit picker to amputate his lower left leg with a power saw
Mr Tal was discovered lying in the gutter outside this fish and chip shop on the Innisfail riverfront by two men out walking around 3.48am on February 19, 2022
Best known for its sugar and tropical fruit industries and high rainfall, Innisfail, population around 10,000, is situated on the crocodile-infested Johnstone River.
Yalu was known at the town’s newsagency where he sent money home to his wife and three children back in Vanuatu, a weekly event which ceased with his arrest.
A retiree, Mr Tal had been living on the town’s outskirts for about two years in a four-bedroom house with his daughter, son-in-law and their children.
He was known around fishing haunts, local shops, and leading up to his death, had come to notice for a strange reason.
Police allege on the night in question Yalu was out drinking with fellow farm workers at the Nite Rumours bar in central Innisfail.
Police allege he then went with Mr Tal to an area near the riverbank where Yalu allegedly agreed to a request to remove Mr Tal’s lower left leg with the circular saw.
After the discovery of Mr Tal’s body, Innisfail police officers arrived at the scene within minutes, ahead of paramedics who were unable to revive him.
Detective Acting Inspector Gary Hunter revealed he found ‘a very confronting’ crime scene when he made it to the area by 5am.
John Yalu has spent four years in custody but will finally face trial in the Cairns Supreme Court in May
John Yalu had been working cutting bananas in the Innisfail area for several years before police allege he agreed to sever Kalman Tal’s leg with a circular saw in February 2022
Vanuatu’s High Commissioner to Australia Samson Vilvil Fare addressing an emergency meeting of around 300 emotional Vanuatuans after Yalu was charged with murder
Insp. Hunter described Mr Tal’s family as ‘shocked’ and ‘distressed’, and said the whole Innisfail community had been traumatised and affected.
Mr Yalu has spent some of the years awaiting trial at the Lotus Glen Correctional Centre, just south of Mareeba in the Atherton Tablelands.
Following his arrest and murder charge, Vanuatu’s High Commissioner to Australia Samson Vilvil Fare travelled to Innisfail and held an emergency meeting with about 300 Vanuatuan migrant fruit pickers to urge calm among the distraught workers.
