Balmain stab accused Jeremy Allen changed his appearance to evade police and is pleading self-defence, court hears
A PERSONAL trainer who has been charged with attempting to murder a teenage boy in a Woolworths carpark in Sydney’s inner west altered his appearance to elude police detection and is pleading self-defence, a court has heard.
NSW
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A PERSONAL trainer charged with attempting to murder a teenage boy in a Woolworths carpark altered his appearance to elude police detection but is pleading self-defence, a court has heard.
Police have said Jeremy Allen asked a 16-year-old boy for a lighter before allegedly stabbing him in the hand and stomach at the Balmain store, leaving him severely injured in hospital.
The 29-year-old, whose Facebook profile says he worked as a CrossFit coach at Camperdown Fitness, was arrested along with his weightlifter girlfriend Cassandra Ross, 23, at home on Saturday.
Allen’s legal aid solicitor Ronnie Naidoo told Parramatta Bail Court yesterday that his client was acting in self-defence.
“There is a very strong argument on the facts that it was self-defence,” Mr Naidoo told Magistrate John Favretto.
“Your honour, I will ask you to not ignore but to look at the police assertions with some circumspection.
“Those set of conclusions about the defendant not having acted in self-defence is made without logical reasoning and without engaging with the facts.”
But police prosecutor Amber Hawkins told the court Allen’s actions, including fleeing the scene and changing his appearance after the alleged stabbing, contradicted these claims.
“Changing his appearance is not consistent with self-defence,” Ms Hawkins said.
“There is a significant criminal history, including offences of violence.
“It is certain if he is convicted of this offence he is going to jail and going to jail for a very long time.”
Mr Favretto refused bail and said the self-defence claim was “improbable” — noting Allen had allegedly disposed of the knife.
“When one looks at the nature of the explanation and one looks at the injury it looks improbable,” he said.
“Apparently in the last two years he has been diagnosed with bipolar but he does not take medication for that … that needs to be resolved, in my view.”
The victim’s mother said that she was at a loss to understand why her son, who was at the supermarket with his younger brother and a friend, had been targeted.
“I don’t understand it at all. I don’t know how anyone can hurt a child, let alone someone they don’t know,” she told Nine News.
“My other son did an amazing job, he’s a very switched-on kid, and he held it together through that period. In calling the ambulance first (he) probably saved his life.”
Allen, who is charged with causing wounding and grievous bodily harm with intent to murder, will remain behind bars until September 11, when he is due to face Central Local Court.
His girlfriend Cassandra Ross didn’t apply for bail, but appeared briefly on the screen crying and said: “I just want to go home.”
She was charged with concealing a serious indictable offence of another person.
She is expected to face Central Local Court on Wednesday.