Two neighbours have been charged with manslaughter over the death of a serial home invader they allegedly chased down with baseball bats in northern NSW.
Vaughn Cummings, 34, had been on the run from police for months with 12 warrants out for his arrest when he was allegedly caught on CCTV prowling the streets of the Murwillumbah suburb of Bray Park at 4am on April 8.
Plumber Michael Henry Harding, 42, and his neighbour Luke Michael Manning, 30, allegedly confronted Cummings and detained him on the footpath in a citizen’s arrest until an off-duty police officer who lived nearby arrived.
Police said at the time that the officer and paramedics found Cummings with “very serious life-threatening injuries” and performed CPR, but he was pronounced dead in hospital two days later.
Mr Harding and Mr Manning were charged with manslaughter last week following a three-month investigation, and Mr Manning’s wife Sandi Williams, 43, has also been charged with hindering the discovery of evidence, The Sunday Telegraph reported.
All three were granted police bail and will face court for the first time on July 27.
Cummings had a long criminal history, had spent time in jail, and was notorious in the region for car thefts, break and enters and other petty crimes, with locals expressing exasperation about him on social media in the weeks leading up to his death.
One revealed police had warned them to hide their car keys because of Cummings and said “it’s hard to believe he hasn’t been caught yet”, while another posted about her car being stolen and police telling her Cummings was the main suspect.
NSW Police Detective Sergeant Gary Sheehan said after Cummings’ death that officers had come close to arresting him the day before the alleged confrontation.
“We were actively conducting investigations to try and apprehend him because we knew he had those 12 outstanding warrants,” he said.
“The last interaction with him was the day previously, however he managed to escape despite the best efforts of police in the area.”
The charges have been compared to a famous 2016 case where Newcastle father Ben Batterham was wrongfully prosecuted over the death of aboriginal rapist Ricky Slater.
Mr Batterham caught Slater, who was high on meth, breaking into his daughter’s bedroom, chased him down the street and put him in a headlock, and was charged with murder and manslaughter after the 118kg burglar suffered three heart attacks and died in hospital.
He was acquitted by a jury in 2019 and in February won a damages payout when Supreme Court Judge Desmond Fagan found the decision to prosecute was “unreasonable”.
Header image: Left, Luke Manning. Right, Vaughn Cummings (Facebook).
The post Neighbours charged over death of serial home invader after citizen’s arrest first appeared on The Noticer.
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