A 17-year-old boy who fatally stabbed a teenager at Surfers' Surfers on the Gold Coast more than two years ago was sentenced to 10 years in jail but will only spend seven years in jail.
Jack Beasley died in December 2019 after being stabbed once in the chest.
Five teenage boys, aged between 15 and 18 at the time, were originally charged with murder over the 17-year-old's death, but three were acquitted of his manslaughter at a judge-only trial last month.
The two remaining two, including a 17-year-old boy, had a sentencing hearing in Brisbane on Friday after he pleaded guilty to murder earlier this year, admitting to inflicting the fatal wound.
A 20-year-old man pleaded guilty to manslaughter, accepting that he had a common purpose to assault Mr Beasley and his friends, and that an unlawful killing would be a probable consequence. The pair who cannot be named due to youth justice laws have pleaded guilty to two counts each of grievous bodily harm in relation to the stabbing of one of Mr Beasley's friends, who was seriously injured.
Knife used in a'senseless' way amid brawl
During a sentencing hearing on Friday, the court heard that the group of teens had crossed paths with Mr Beasley and his friends, who were not known to them, and they had hatched a plan to chase them and fight them.
Crown Prosecutor Todd Fuller told the court that the older offender took a lead role and was one of the main protagonists who instigated the violence with Mr Beasley.
He was involved in the altercation from the start to the end.
The court heard a physical fight between some of the two groups, including Mr Beasley.
Mr Fuller told the court the younger teen escalated the level of violence by using the knife offensively rather than defensively and in a senseless way.
He said that the grave nature of his offending speaks for itself.
After reading a victim impact statement through tears, Mr Beasley's mother Belinda Beasley addressed the teens in the dock, calling them cowards You ran away and left Jack and his friend to die on the footpath with not a care in the world what kind of people are you? She said something.
In that moment, you destroyed so many people's lives. Mrs Beasley described her son as a beautiful boy who was cheeky, fun-loving and easy going and said his death had turned her life into a living nightmare. The pain you have brought to our family is indescribable, she said.
We lost Jack in the way we lost a child. Our lives changed forever.
Everyone knows that being a juvenile is an excuse for being a juvenile. In a written statement by the younger teen, read by his defence lawyer James Benjamin, he said he took full responsibility for my actions and held myself accountable. The 17-year-old then appeared in court and told the judge: I'm very sorry Justice Soraya Ryan described the offences as profoundly tragic and said they had heartbreaking consequences for Mr Beasley's family and wider community implications.
Good parents of young people are scared when their children leave home to go out because of people like you and your companions, he said.
Justice Ryan sentenced the 17-year-old boy to 10 years in jail and ordered him to serve 70 per cent of the term.
The 20-year-old man was sentenced to seven years in jail and will be eligible for parole in 12 months.