THE uncle of a Lavington man charged with murder told yesterday how his nephew’s personality had changed through his use of ice.
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Roger Bysouth gave evidence on the second day of a committal hearing involving Campbell Hart, 29.
Mr Bysouth said he had had a close relationship for many years with his nephew and they spoke on a weekly basis until six or eight weeks before the fatal shooting of Luke Hargrave on October 29, 2013.
A number of messages were sent by Mr Bysouth to Hart’s mobile phone, but no replies were received.
“It was like he had shut up shop,” Mr Bysouth said.
He received a phone call from Hart’s sister, Amanda Cameron, who said he was driving when affected by ice.
Mr Bysouth tried to ring Hart a number of times, got no reply and decided to travel the 300 kilometres from Bendigo to Albury.
It was while he was driving to Albury he received the news Hart had shot someone in the head.
Mr Bysouth went to the police station the day after the shooting and saw his nephew sitting in the cells.
He asked what happened and Hart responded by saying it was claimed he had killed someone, but his conversation then started to ramble.
He said Hart would start talking about one topic, drop off and then discuss something else.
Hart had claimed there were cameras in his Pearsall Street house, across the road from his house and in his garage.
Mr Bysouth asked whether he could do anything for him and he indicated he wanted a sausage roll.
“I would say talking to him was very strange. I hardly knew him,” Mr Bysouth said.
Defender barrister Eric Wilson SC asked: “Did he appear to be a different man?”.
“Totally different,” Mr Bysouth replied.
He saw Hart in Junee jail a couple of weeks later.
“He was all over the paddock still. He was a lot better, but he still had problems,” Mr Bysouth said.
“He would be talking about something and then go to something different.”
