James Callahan sat on a footpath outside a kebab shop at 2am one Sunday, enjoying a meal with his friend.
Just over an hour later, the 22-year-old was pronounced dead in hospital, having been ambushed and allegedly fatally stabbed by a group of youths after he commented about one of them littering.
Police allege James Callahan, 22, was fatally ambushed by a group of youths outside a takeaway shop in Newcastle.Credit: GoFundMe
Almost six months on, details of the November 17 attack and its aftermath have emerged as the girlfriend of one of the alleged murderers fronted the NSW Supreme Court, accused of helping her partner avoid arrest.
According to a police fact sheet tendered to court as 29-year-old Teelah Cooper was granted bail, Callahan and his friend were eating on the footpath on Beaumont Street, Hamilton, a suburb of Newcastle, when a woman threw some of her kebab out a car window as she drove past the young men.
This “caused Callahan to comment” and the woman got out of her car and walked towards him, before several of her friends fought with Callahan, the fact sheet reads.
The scuffle broke up after the arrival of a patrolling police car, and Callahan and his friend walked off down a nearby street.
Minutes later, footage from CCTV cameras allegedly showed four co-accused follow them in a car before approaching them in what became another violent attack.
Ryan Sampson and Teelah Cooper.Credit: Facebook
One swung a metal pole at Callahan as another stabbed him in the abdomen and chest, police say. Members of the group allegedly shouted “smash him” and “kill him” as he was repeatedly kicked and punched.
At this point, Cooper’s boyfriend, a knife-wielding man named Ryan Sampson, is accused of jumping out of her car and joining the carnage.
Callahan was allegedly lying face-down with one arm out to defend himself as Sampson, 33, towered over him and stabbed him several times in the back and neck.
During the attack, which was captured on CCTV and mobile phone footage, Callahan’s friend was also assaulted.
The court heard Cooper then got out of her car, called Sampson over and drove away with him.
“After that, there were texts referring to the incident and [Cooper] and/or Sampson conducted Google searches for stories relating to the murder of the victim,” the prosecutor told the court.
The court heard that the next day, the couple sold the car they had been driving, obtained another car and drove it to Queensland. It was there that Sampson was arrested by police.
Callahan has been remembered as “a loved son, a brother and a remarkable friend”.Credit: Facebook
Six people have since been arrested and charged with murder over the incident, including Sampson. Cooper is accused of being an accessory after the fact to murder and concealing an indictable offence.
Cooper handed herself into police earlier this month after realising they wanted to speak with her, the court heard.
Cooper was initially granted bail in the local court with a condition not to contact any of the co-accused, including Sampson. But the couple allegedly exchanged hundreds of calls while the latter was in custody, with police accusing Cooper of “using another name to disguise her identity and obtaining different phones which it is said were engineered to appear as though they were in Queensland when she was in NSW”.
Cooper’s bail was revoked and she was placed in custody on remand.
In opposing her release on bail in the NSW Supreme Court last week, the prosecutor submitted there was a flight risk due to her previous bail breaches.
Ryan Sampson (centre, in a black singlet) has been charged with murder over Callahan’s death.Credit: Facebook
But Justice Stephen Rothman granted her bail with conditions akin to home detention, agreeing with her Legal Aid lawyer that the risk could be ameliorated with strict conditions.
He noted her clean criminal record, strong ties to her family and wider Indigenous community, and the fact she is not accused of inciting violence herself.
The court heard trial delays could force her time in custody on remand to exceed the length of her jail sentence if she is convicted. Rothman acknowledged she had been diagnosed with depression, anxiety, PTSD and adjustment disorder.
In an online fundraiser for Callahan’s family posted shortly after the alleged murder, Callahan’s friend Stephanie Nunn described him as “a loved son, a brother and a remarkable friend”.
“I cannot thank him enough for the friendship he gave those around me. He could light up the universe with his smile and loved looking after his mates,” she wrote about the keen environmentalist.
“He loved his fishing, and those who he would fish with loved his company. He loved and cared for the ocean and any wildlife he came across.”
Sampson and co-accused Jason Talbot, George James Fernando, Frank Allen and Alivia Briggs have each been charged with murder and are yet to enter pleas. Dianne Fernando faces a charge of principal in the second degree to murder.
Cooper is next due to face court on June 11.
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