A 21-year-old defendant has formally entered a not guilty plea and confirmed he will defend a manslaughter charge at a scheduled 2025 trial over the fatal one-punch assault on senior Australian Labor Party strategist Tim Picton outside a Western Australian nightclub. Brodie Dewar made his first court appearance before the West Australian Supreme Court on Monday, where he denied the allegation of unlawfully killing 36-year-old Picton.
The violent incident unfolded in the early hours of December 27 last year, just outside a popular Perth venue. Picton was rushed to a local hospital immediately after the assault, where medical teams placed him in an induced coma to treat his injuries. Despite initial emergency interventions, the senior Labor figure succumbed to his injuries and died several weeks after the attack.
On Monday, Justice Joseph McGrath confirmed the trial timeline, scheduling a 10-day court hearing set to begin in July 2025. The two-week proceeding will hear all evidence related to the case as Dewar contests the manslaughter charge.
Before relocating to Western Australia, Picton built an extensive career across Australian Labor politics. He previously served as president of South Australian Young Labor, and held advisory roles for federal Labor parliamentarians Amanda Rishworth and Don Farrell, as well as working in the office of former Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews. At the time of his death, he was a key strategist in WA Labor, and was widely recognized for his critical work contributing to former WA Premier Mark McGowan’s landslide election victory in 2021. He is also the brother of current South Australian State Development Minister Chris Picton.