Toutai Kefu’s wife’s flashbacks of horror of blood-soaked stabbing after teen home invasion

The wife of Wallabies legend Toutai Kefu has revealed she suffers from flashbacks of her husband and son dripping in blood, after being slashed in a terrifying teen home invasion. Warning: Graphic details

Rachel and Toutai Kefu leaving the Brisbane Supreme Court. Picture: Steve Pohlner

Wallabies rugby legend Toutai Kefu’s wife has described to a court how she suffers flashbacks of the moment she feared she would lose both her husband and son when they were dripping with blood, slashed by teens brandishing knives in a terrifying home invasion.

Rachel Kefu told the Supreme Court in Brisbane on Monday that she has constant flashbacks of the “horror” of seeing her husband with his “whole hand inside his stomach trying to stop himself from bleeding out” and son Joshua with his “skin flapping” believing they would die.

“Joshua had deep cuts all over his back and arm, skin flapping, blood all over him, and a dislocated shoulder,” Mrs Kefu said.

Toutai Kefu speaking to media outside his property following the horror home invasion in 2021. Picture: Tara Croser.

“The vivid mental images from that night of the crime continue to replay in my mind, I can’t erase these images,” she said with her voice trembling.

“It was so traumatic and continues to feel painfully raw.”

The brave mum-of-five was speaking at the sentencing hearing of two boys who were 15 years old at the time they stormed the Kefu’s home in the Brisbane suburb of Coorparoo in the early hours of August 15, 2021.

Police at the scene of Toutai Kefu’s Coorparoo home after the violent home invasion: Brad Fleet

Her victim impact statement was one of two read aloud to the court during the hearing where Crown Prosecutor David Finch has asked Justice Peter Davis to send the pair to prison for more than the maximum 10 years because of the “heinous” nature of their crimes.

Kefu’s neighbour Ben Cannon, a local real estate agent who has since given up his career due to the trauma, told the court he also suffered sleepless nights.

Mr Cannon said he is haunted by vivid nightmares where he can “smell blood” as he replays the events in his mind.

Even the simple chore of using detergent to wash his dishes reminds him of the horror of enormous amount of blood spilt by the Kefu family that night.

“So much blood,” Mr Cannon told the court, adding that he even wrestled with one offender in the blood.

Toutai Kefu with his children following a home invasion in August 2021. Picture: Tara Croser.

Mrs Kefu, 48, slipped in blood on the floor as she fought for her life, Mr Finch submitted.

The couple were injured along with two of their children as they wrestled with the teenage pair, who cannot be named due to their ages at the time of the crime.

Mr Finch told the court that one of the teens brandished a long “sickle” knife, while the other had a smaller knife, in the attack which began at 3.10am when Mrs Kefu went downstairs and confronted the two boys who demanded “f***ing shut up we want the keys give us the keys to the car”.

Mr Kefu suffered a “life threatening” injury when he was stabbed in stomach, wife Mrs Kefu has been left with permanent damage after she was stabbed in the left arm, and son Joshua suffered deep cuts and a dislocated shoulder described by Mr Finch as “significant and extensive”.

Cleaners at the crime scene in Coorparoo following a home invasion earlier this week. Pics Tara Croser.

Daughter Madison, aged 18-years-old at the time, was also injured in the melee.

The teens have each pleaded guilty to eight charges including serious assault, four counts of malicious act with intent, as well as burglary and car theft after they stole a car in Forest Lake that they drove to the Kefu home.

Mr Finch says the teens chose the Kefu home because of the “nature of the cars parked outside” and the home’s “appearance”.

Justice Davis adjourned the hearing late yesterday to resume on Tuesday morning.

Two co-offenders, who waited in the car outside but were aware of the knives, were sentenced for their role in the invasion in the Childrens Court in February to two-and-a-half years detention with one walking free as he had already served his time in pre-sentence custody.