Three men accused of the gruesome murder of a Melbourne drug user have admitted they all helped dispose of his dismembered body in the Maribyrnong River last year.
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But the three are pleading not guilty to Brendan David Bernard's murder, telling the Supreme Court through their lawyers that they did not intend for him to die.
Mr Bernard met his end during what was described as a "chaotic" night in late January last year at a North Melbourne unit, in which everyone present was drunk and high on ice.
Mr Bernard, 32, was left for dead in a bathtub after being violently and repeatedly assaulted and tortured.
All three men admitted they were involved in the assault on Mr Bernard.
The court has heard the men left Mr Bernard's body in the bathtub for "about" a week before acting to dispose of it.
Two of the accused - Con Spaliaras and Matthew David Brennan - admitted through their lawyers on Wednesday to chopping up Mr Bernard's body.
Mr Bernard's body parts surfaced in the river over several days in February 2015.
More parts were discovered in March.
The men had decided to throw the dead man's head, hands and feet into a council bin near a playground, so they could not be traced, prosecutor Gavin Silbert, QC, told the court on Tuesday.
But, he said, by the time they came to this decision they had already dumped Mr Bernard's forearm in the river.
A distinctive tattoo on Mr Bernard's forearm, of a devil wearing jeans and holding a spray can, was identified by his stepfather the day after the limb was discovered by a member of the public last February.
"There's no sophistication or cleverness in this case," Mr Silbert told the court.
Lawyers for Mr Spaliaras and a third accused man, Edward Lionel "Nippy" Hill, on Wednesday invited the jury to find their clients guilty of manslaughter.
All three men have pleaded not guilty to murder, arguing that none intended that Mr Bernard die, and there was no intention among the men to "kill or really seriously injure" him.
Mr Brennan's lawyer, Colin Mandy, told the court that the entire case against the three men rested on the testimony of KJ, a woman present during the Australia Day assault last year.
Mr Mandy said the defence would call KJ's credibility into question.
"She is the only witness to what happened in that living room," Mr Mandy told the jury.
"You appreciate by now ... this is a different world that you're going into.
"Everyone in that living room was drug-affected or drunk, you might find, in the middle of one chaotic night."
KJ, he said, "couldn't go out in public unless she'd had something to drink ... [she is] a woman who couldn't remember where she'd left her baby".
"You'll be focusing very carefully on her evidence," Mr Mandy said.
"How reliable is it?"
