Jamie Douglas Saxon, 37, pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the Brisbane Supreme Court after his murder conviction was overturned on appeal.

Dominik Schulze – who was in Australia on a working holiday – was skylarking with a friend after a night of drinking when the men clashed in the early hours of October 6, 2017.

The 30-year-old backpacker was on an inner-city Brisbane road, with his pants down and his genitals exposed when he was accidentally knocked over by a car driven by Saxon’s fiancee about 3.45am.

He was not seriously injured, but the men got into an altercation with the “aggression instigated” by Schulze and his friend, the court was told on Thursday.

Saxon was able to avoid blows from the very drunk Schulze who was significantly taller than the Brisbane man.

He hadn’t been struck by any punches when he got a black-handled knife with a 15cm blade from his car.

The court heard he “flipped the switch” and lost control in a rage motivated by the aggression displayed by Schultze and his friend towards himself and his partner.

Saxon stabbed Schulze at least three times, leaving him with injuries so bad “intestines were protruding from his stomach”.

He left with his fiancee in their vehicle – telling her he had only punched Schulze – before emergency services arrived.

The backpacker was rushed to hospital but died before midday.

Barrister Colin Reid said Saxon did not intend to kill Schulze.

“He has accepted the wrongness of his actions on the night … and he’s prepared to face up to punishment for that in a very real way,” he added.

Justice Thomas Bradley said Schulze was unarmed during the altercation and “practically naked” when Saxon first encountered him.

The backpacker was obviously drunk and the attacker, but Saxon displayed aggression in response when he could have left or got into his car.

“You chose to arm yourself with the knife and you stabbed him in the chest and abdomen with it and in doing so you took his life,” Justice Bradley added.

In handing down an eight-year jail sentence, Justice Bradley said Saxon had shown “genuine remorse for his actions”.

Saxon’s first offer to plead guilty to manslaughter was rejected before he was found guilty of murder by a jury in October 2019 and sentenced to life behind bars.

But the conviction was quashed and a retrial ordered when the Queensland Court of Appeal last year found the jury had been given a document containing an error.