ACT court finds Danny Klobucar guilty of choking man in vigilante attack

Magistrate Robert Cook found Danny Klobucar, 34, of Wanniassa, guilty of choking a person and rendering them insensible, and possession of methamphetamine in the ACT Magistrates Court on Monday.

Klobucar had previously pleaded not guilty to the charges.

The magistrate dismissed much of the evidence provided during a two-day hearing, finding it "unreliable", but said the account given by the choking victim was consistent.

Klobucar bashed Miodrag Gajic to death at the 71-year-old's Phillip home in January 2014 after forming the belief he was a paedophile.

An ACT Supreme Court jury later found Klobucar, who was suffering from paranoid schizophrenia, not guilty of murder because of mental impairment.

Justice Hilary Penfold, who described the attack as "brutal and pitiless", indicated she would have sentenced Klobucar to 17 years and nine months in jail had he been found guilty.

However, Klobucar was released from a secure detention facility some time before May 30, 2022, when the latest offences took place.

Klobucar attended the Conder home of the victim in response to claims the man had burnt a child's leg with a cigarette.

He choked the man to the point of unconsciousness in retaliation, despite the victim claiming the mark on the child's left calf was actually ringworm.

Klobucar had accosted the victim outside a toilet and dragged him into a room.

There, according to police, Klobucar's mother Marie-Solvy Leclair accused the man of abusing the child and punched him in the face.

Klobucar then wrapped an arm around the man's neck and choked him unconscious.

Leclair, who has been charged with assault, is said to have kicked the man in the face as this occurred.

The victim claimed to have defecated himself during the assault. This became a matter of contention during the hearing in December.

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Defence barrister Travis Jackson had questioned whether the claim was actually a symptom of a recent haemorrhoids diagnosis.

During cross-examination, when the victim didn't understand the meaning of the words "loose stools", "diarrhea", or "loose faecal matter", Mr Jackson grew visibly agitated.

Mr Jackson eventually conveyed the message by exclaiming: "wet poo", a term immediately understood by the complainant.

Klobucar has pleaded guilty to a charge of possessing stolen or otherwise unlawfully obtained property after police found him with two driver's licences belonging to other people when he was arrested on May 31, 2022.

He has been remanded in custody and is set to be sentenced on April 3.

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