3 weeks ago
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February 6, 2026 — 2:46pm
The 20-year-old man who allegedly coward-punched influential business and Labor figure Tim Picton during a night out in Northbridge late last year has had his charge officially upgraded to manslaughter.
WA Police had flagged they intended to upgrade Lesmurdie man Brodie Jake Dewar’s grievous bodily harm charge after the South Australian-born Picton died last month.
The alleged assault left Picton, 36, with a serious brain bleed, and he was placed in a coma from which he never woke.
Dewar has been in jail since January 16 after his bail was revoked when police laid separate charges over another alleged assault outside the Kalamunda Hotel just two days before the Picton incident.
During that hearing at Armadale Magistrates Court the court played footage of both incidents.
Footage of the Picton incident in December showed the Mineral Resources director and former WA Labor secretary standing and talking calmly to a man police allege was Dewar, who raises his right arm and punches Picton in the face.
Picton can be seen falling to the floor, where he remained still.
In footage of the Kalamunda Hotel incident Dewar can allegedly be heard saying, “don’t hit on my younger sister next time brother”, and “keep snoring”, as bystanders ran to the man’s aid.
It was alleged he filmed the man as he lay unconscious before uploading the footage to social media site Snapchat.
The court heard the man has since recovered from minor injuries.
At the time, Magistrate Mark Millington revoked Dewar’s bail, telling him he was “an inherent risk to the community”.
But on Friday as Dewar came before Perth Magistrates Court, his lawyer Simon Watters attempted to make another bail application on the basis that Magistrate Millington had not been presented with entire footage of the Kalamunda incident.
He told the court that the full footage would include the lead up to the alleged assault and show “an incident between Dewar’s sister and the complainant” which he indicated would mitigate his actions.
He also said a statement from Dewar’s cousin would be provided to the court, outlining an interaction between the family member and Picton on the night of his alleged attack.
The matter was ultimately adjourned until next Friday when footage could be viewed by the magistrate in full.
However, Dewar was formally presented with a new charge of manslaughter.
The 20-year-old could be seen in tears during the hearing and as more than 20 family and friends looked on from the court gallery they yelled out, “we love you Brodie” as his matter concluded.
Picton was regarded as the architect of some of WA Labor’s biggest successes, including Mark McGowan’s 2021 election win and federal Labor’s resurgence in the state during the 2022 election.
Picton’s brother Chris Picton, who is Health Minister in the South Australian government, travelled to WA to be with his brother while he was in a coma.
In his first interview since the incident he said he was “beyond angry”.
“The shock that we had on that Saturday morning, getting that phone call, still haunts me and my family to this day,” he said.
“It was unlikely that Tim was going to come back, but we were still obviously all hoping for a miracle.
“I’m not saying that what we’ve dealt with is any worse than what anyone else has had to deal with, but this has been a nightmare that we keep thinking how we’re going to wake up from.
“It’s been very, very difficult for us all to face there’s a hole in our family that’s never, ever going to be filled.”
Dewar will be back before Perth Magistrates Court on February 13.
