A Victorian Supreme Court jury has delivered a guilty verdict in the manslaughter case against Troy Matthew Maskell, 47, for the fatal assault on 73-year-old postmaster John Burke. The incident, which occurred in August 2021, resulted in Burke’s death two months after the attack.
Maskell confronted Burke at a Shell service station near Strathmerton in northern Victoria during the early hours of August 7, 2021. The court heard that Maskell’s partner initiated verbal abuse against Burke, falsely accusing the longtime postmaster of being a pedophile before Maskell escalated the confrontation.
CCTV evidence presented during the trial showed Maskell picking up a one-liter bottle of Maximus Isotonic sports drink and throwing it with force at Burke’s head. The impact caused the elderly man to fall to the ground. Maskell continued the assault by kicking Burke in the hip and deliberately stomping on his glasses before leaving the premises.
Burke was transported to hospital where physicians diagnosed a subdural hematoma – a serious brain bleed. Despite medical intervention, he succumbed to his injuries on October 16, 2021, after two months of hospitalization.
This verdict represents Maskell’s second conviction for the crime, after the Court of Appeal overturned an earlier guilty verdict from 2023. The appellate court ruled that certain CCTV footage showing Maskell demanding the deletion of assault recordings should have been excluded as prejudicial evidence.
Burke had served as Strathmerton’s postmaster for 45 years and was widely respected within the community. Maskell is scheduled to return to court for a presentence hearing on Thursday.