Dad-to-be dies after attack

Eliza Beaumont described her brother Jed, who died last week, as her best friend.

Kiwi was in an induced coma for a month after being assaulted in West Australian town.

A New Zealander with a child on the way has died after what his family say was an unprovoked attack outside a bar in a small Western Australian town.

Jed Beaumont, 33, was in a coma for almost a month in Royal Perth Hospital before his death on Monday last week.

He is understood to have been working as a chef in a migrant detention centre in the small wheat-belt town of Northam, which has a population of about 6500 and is 97km northeast of Perth, when he and another man were attacked by several people in the street outside a pub on the night of Friday, April 17.

Perth police told the Herald last night that 23-year-old Hubert Benjamin Humes, from Northam, had been charged with inflicting grievous bodily harm and endangering life, health and safety of a person.

He is due to reappear in court next Monday.

Three men were arrested after the assault.

Mr Beaumont attended St Augustine's College in Wanganui and Massey University in Palmerston North. His family are trying to bring his body home to be buried in Taranaki.

The man Mr Beaumont had been at the pub with was treated at a local hospital for minor injuries but according to a page organised by Mr Beaumont's sister Eliza Beaumont on the Givealittle charity website, her brother was placed in an induced coma after being admitted to the hospital.

A spokeswoman for Givealittle said yesterday the family did not want to comment, for fear of jeopardising court proceedings and police inquiries.

But Ms Beaumont, of Wellington, said on the page that her parents were still in Perth working through procedures for bringing their son home to New Zealand, and those were likely to take another two weeks.

"Jed was very close to his family and the pain they are feeling is unbearable," she said.

"It's been a horrible and traumatic experience for them all. They are heartbroken and extremely distraught."

In asking for donations to bring him home and help his parents with accommodation costs, she said any extra money raised would go to a trust for his unborn child.

The appeal, which began on Saturday, had by last night raised $2745 from 45 donors.

She said on her Facebook page that Mr Beaumont was her best friend.

"My brother was perfect in every way - he had a beautiful soul and heart and I miss him so, so much."

Police have not named the pub Mr Beaumont was attacked outside, but a senior Western Australian state minister was assaulted outside the Shamrock Hotel in the same street in 2011.

Minister for Regional Development Terry Redman, who held the corrections portfolio at the time, described how he was assaulted during a "frightening and confronting" incident that left the hotel resembling a riot scene.