Boy found not guilty of Weston Creek skatepark stabbing murder granted bail

A jury found the 17-year-old boy not guilty of murder last Friday, following a five-week trial in the ACT Supreme Court.

The boy, who was 15 at the time of a deadly brawl at the Weston Creek skatepark, had denied allegations he stabbed an 18-year-old man to death amidst a two-minute melee.

He remained in custody following his acquittal because he had pleaded guilty to a charge of recklessly inflicting grievous bodily harm on the deceased's 16-year-old cousin.

The boy admitted knifing that victim, who survived his injuries, in the lower back once during the same "quick and confused" fight in September 2020.

None of the people involved in the fight, which broke out in response to a social media stoush, can be named for legal reasons.

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When the 17-year-old's case returned to court on Thursday afternoon, solicitor Adrian McKenna applied for the boy to be released on bail to await his sentencing.

Crown prosecutor Rebecca Christensen SC did not oppose the application so long as Chief Justice Lucy McCallum imposed a proposed set of 21 bail conditions.

The judge, who agreed to do this, made an order preventing details of the boy's bail conditions and "his area of residence" being published.

Chief Justice McCallum is scheduled to hear sentencing submissions relating to the grievous bodily harm offence next month.

During the boy's trial, he took the witness stand and gave evidence that he had found a knife on the ground during the deadly 12-person skatepark brawl.

He claimed to have picked it up and stabbed the 16-year-old from behind to protect a friend, who was being "bashed".

But he denied prosecutors' claims that he had used the same weapon to stab the deceased, saying he had not been in the same area of the fight as the 18-year-old.

Defence barrister David Barrow ultimately suggested to the jury that any one of four older brawlers, who arrived at the scene in a large utility, might have stabbed the deceased and then discarded the knife for his client to find.

Mr Barrow singled out one of that quartet as the most likely killer, saying this adult combatant was "a shameless liar" who had been "out of control" at the time of the incident.

The 17-year-old was arrested in late October 2020 and granted bail nearly a month later.

His bail was subsequently revoked in October last year, leaving him in custody for the trial.

The boy sat in the dock on Thursday to hear he would be released yet again, as his father watched on from the public gallery.

He is scheduled to face a sentence hearing on July 29.

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