Teens found not guilty of murdering former Canberra radio employee

The Supreme Court has found two young men not guilty of murder, but guilty of detaining Peter Keeley with the intention of occasioning actual bodily harm.

The judge-alone trial over six days heard evidence from forensic experts who disagreed on the cause of death.

Mr Keeley was a real estate agent and had worked at Mix 106.3 and hit104.7 in Canberra.

His body was found in bushland at Broulee, on the New South Wales South Coast, with tape around the ankles, wrists and head.

Three 17-year-old boys were charged with his murder and two of them, now aged 19 and 20, faced a trial in the NSW Supreme Court in May after pleading not guilty to murder but guilty to aggravated kidnapping.

On Thursday, Justice Michael Walton found them not guilty of murder, but convicted them for detaining Mr Keeley with the intention of occasioning actual bodily harm.

The defence has argued that methamphetamine toxicity caused Mr Keeley’s death while the prosecutions witness had argued that the victim had likely suffered cardiac arrest caused by a craniofacial trauma with airway obstruction after the teenagers assaulted him.

Justice Walton agreed that methamphetamine toxicity could not be ruled out as a cause of death.