A panicked teenager allegedly told friends he only realised the knife he used to stab a doctor to death “was actually going in” after two strikes.
The boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons, has pleaded not guilty to one count of murdering GP Ash Gordon and guilty to two counts of aggravated burglary after breaking into his home.
The accused had attended a house house party in Doncaster, in Melbourne‘s northeast on January 12, 2024, when just after 4am the next day, he and another boy decided to “take” a black Mercedes they had seen at a home down the road, prosecutor Kristie Churchill told a Supreme Court jury on Thursday.
The pair walked over to the residence, where inside the three-story townhouse and asleep in their rooms were Dr Gordon and his housemate on the first and third floors, respectively.
The pair broke in by sliding under the garage door before stealing shoes, headphones, laptops and silver necklaces belonging to Dr Gordon.
Upon returning to their friend’s house, the boys “boasted about things they stole” and planned to return again, the prosecutor told the court.
Two more teens joined the pair, with the four captured on CCTV wearing gloves, balaclavas, face masks and hats.
The prosector alleged they again slipped under the garage door but this time, they don’t go undetected.
“Hello boys,” Dr Gordon said, after being awoken by the intruders, prompting the teens to run outside.
The GP’s housemate had told him they should call police but Dr Gordon said, “We’ll call them later. We need to get our stuff back”.
After catching up with three of the teens outside his driveway, two of them jumped the fence, leaving the accused who the GP attempted to restrain, the prosecutor said.
During the scuffle, the teen allegedly pulled out a knife and inflicted 11 sharp injuries, leaving the victim laying on the ground.
“One of those penetrated Dr Gordon’s chest cavity which killed him,” Ms Churchill told the court.
Two teens jumped back over the fence after the accused yelled for help before one allegedly kicked the victim in the face so forcefully that his “eyes rolled into the back of his head”.
After fleeing, the panicked accused allegedly told the others he had “stabbed a guy” four to five times.
“Shit, just killed a guy. Like he’s dead bro,” a court heard the accused allegedly said.
“The first two times I stabbed him I didn’t realise (the knife) was going in. After the next few times I realised it was actually going in.”
The court was told on January 14, the accused and two others met up at an apartment in Melbourne’s inner-south, where they discussed fleeing the country and no snitching.
Three days later, police attended the apartment and arrested the accused, where they also found a silver chain allegedly belonging to Dr Gordon.
Defence barrister Amelia Beech urged the jury to look at the evidence and approach the trial as if it was a “task of the mind, not a task of the heart”.
Ms Beech accepted jury members may have heard about the issue of youth crime in Victoria and how it has become “political fodder”.
She said the case was just about what happened between Dr Gordon and the accused at 5.27am on 13 January, 2024.
“You can’t send a message to the attorney-general or the premier here in this court,” she said.
