The son of a boxing champion charged with the murder of another man in Melbourne’s inner west has psychosis, schizophrenia and akathisia, a court has been told.
Zac Swettenham, 37, the son of Australian boxing legend Barry Michael, appeared via video link in the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday afternoon after he was charged with killing a 25-year-old man in Footscray on Sunday.
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The man was found with serious injuries behind the Courthouse Hotel on Nicholson St, near Irvine St, about 7.45pm on Sunday.
Emergency services tried to treat the South Yarra man but he died at the scene.
Wearing white prison clothes and covering his legs with a white blanket, Mr Swettenham appeared relaxed but tired.
Akathisia is a “subjective and very distressing feeling of restlessness” and can be caused by antipsychosis medication, according to the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners.
He will appear in court again on October 13.
Mr Swettenham was arrested about 8.30pm on Monday at Yarraville railway station.
“At this stage, detectives believe the parties were known to each other,” a police statement read.
Mr Sweetenham was previously sentenced to three years and six months in jail for assaulting a man in his home with a baseball bat and robbing him in 2020.
Mr Sweetenham’s father held the IBF super featherweight world championship from 1985-1987. Michael famously won his first world title in an epic stoush with Lester Ellis in July 1985.
After retiring from the ring, Michael became a respected boxing analyst.
He also unsuccessfully ran for the Senate in 2013, representing the Palmer United Party.