An African refugee who murdered his friend with a hunting knife in broad daylight in Brisbane because he felt “disrespected” has been jailed for just over eight years.
The 18-year-old, who cannot be named because he was 17 at the time of the fatal stabbing, late last year pleaded guilty to the murder of Abddullahi Ahmed Iyow, 19, in Acacia Ridge in May last year.
The killer was due to be sentenced last Monday, but one of his victim’s brothers allegedly stabbed him in the back as he entered the courtroom and the hearing was postponed for a week.
Justice Rebecca Treston said in sentencing that the crime was particularly heinous and sentenced the teenager to 12 years, but ordered he be released after serving 70% of his sentence, ABC News reported.
The court heard the 18-year-old came to Australia as a refugee, admitted to involvement in gang crime, found fighting “entertaining” and enjoyed stabbing people, but had no criminal record.
“I was addicted to stabbing because of my past trauma,” he told a psychiatrist.
Crown Prosecutor Chris Cook told the court the killer’s gang crime admissions were “really scary stuff” and that one kidnapping incident “sounds like warfare on our streets … that has never come to police’s attention”.
The court heard the teenager became upset with Iyow for damaging his phone and causing the loss of his drug dealing contacts, and assaulted him, pushing him to the ground.
Mr Cook said the killer then stabbed him three times for “no legitimate reason” and later “claimed he was disrespected”, telling the court Iyow was never a threat and “effectively defenceless”.
Iyow underwent surgery but died of his wounds a month later, and in victim impact statements his family called the murder “unjustified” and “brutal”.
The sentence came after another judge jailed 10 Sudanese killers, most who were refugees, to life in jail for murdering another African refugee in a park in Zillmere, in Brisbane’s north, in 2020.
Header image: The scene of the murder (Nine News).
