A councillor from the Gold Coast who is charged with killing his stepfather will be freed on bail with a $250,000 deposit.
Councilman Ryan Donald Bayldon-Lumsden, 30, of the City of Gold Coast’s Division 7 has been accused of killing Robert Lumsden, 58, on August 23 at the family’s Arundel home around 3 o’clock.
Bayldon-Lumsden was not present during his over two-hour long bail application hearing on Thursday in Brisbane Supreme Court.
The stepfather of the defendant, according to defense attorney Craig Eberhardt KC, had a history of dominating and abusing his client, and the two had recently had a heated dispute.
According to Eberhardt, “This is an offense committed against a background and significant history of domestic violence.”
He said that Bayldon-Lumsden pushed his stepfather away in response to being threatened and poked in the chest, causing Lumsden to trip and fall.
Eberhardt claimed Bayldon-Lumsden put both arms around his stepfather’s neck and applied a chokehold with the intention of making him unconscious because he was afraid he would stab his stepfather with a kitchen knife.
Lumsden, however, became purple and was rendered lifeless.
Eberhardt said that Bayldon-Lumsden was not a flight danger and that he wanted to enter a not guilty plea on the basis of self-defense or the preservation of life in an oppressive domestic situation.
The prosecution opposed Lumsden’s release on bail on the grounds that an extended amount of force had been used on his neck during the autopsy, breaking a bone and rupturing blood vessels in his eyes.
The crown prosecutor cited Bayldon-Lumsden’s two days prior to the incident Google searches, which showed him looking into manslaughter and potential ways to avoid jail.
In 2020, Bayldon-Lumsden won a seat on the City of Gold Coast council, where she is the council’s inner northern suburbs representative.
