Kayla Dawson, Richard Sione found guilty of Jason Galleghan’s murder

Two alleged associates of a western Sydney postcode gang have been found guilty of murder for their roles in the savage fatal bashing of tragic teen Jason Galleghan in 2021.

Jason Galleghan.

A judge has found two alleged associates of a western Sydney postcode gang guilty of murder in relation to a tragic 16-year-old’s brutal bashing death.

Kayla Dawson and Richard Sione had both pleaded not guilty to murder in the NSW Supreme Court after teen Jason Galleghan was bashed to death inside Dawson’s Doonside home on August 6, 2021.

Police had alleged Sione was one of several people who savagely assaulted Jason before he died and that Dawson had lured him to her house to have him bashed for stealing her AirPods.

Dawson was then 19 and contended she should only be found guilty of manslaughter due to the impairing effect of intellectual disability.

Kayla Dawson.

Sione, now 32, argued he did not deal the fatal blows to Jason – and that five young people who continued the assault after he left Dawson’s home were responsible for his death.

Those charged over Jason’s death were allegedly affiliated with the “27” postcode gang – a street gang composed of people residing in the Doonside area in Sydney’s west.

NSW Supreme Court Justice Robert Hulme has now found the pair guilty of murder due to their roles in the joint criminal enterprise devised to punish Jason for the alleged AirPods theft.

Richard Sione.

Justice Hulme said he could not accept Dawson’s intellectual disability sufficiently affected her judgment or impulse control to find her guilty of anything less than murder.

“I’m not persuaded she has demonstrated her capacity to control herself was substantially impaired – the murder was carried out in such horrific circumstances, and her role was central to it,” Justice Hulme said.

“She wanted the deceased to be assaulted, because he had annoyed her and had bullied her, she willingly involved herself and encouraged the protracted beating by being present and recording and transmitting it with apparent glee.”

Jason Galleghan.

Justice Hulme said he would also not accept Sione’s contention he was not part of the joint criminal enterprise in which Jason’s ultimately fatal assault was proposed, formulated and executed.

“He and others detained the deceased in the bedroom, without his consent, to obtain a psychological advantage by humiliating him to exact punishment and retribution for the perceived theft of Kayla Dawson’s AirPods,” Justice Hulme said.

“He simply walked out – he said and did nothing to deter any continued assault by the co-participants in the enterprise.”

Justice Hulme further dismissed Sione’s barrister’s criticism of juvenile co-offenders who gave evidence in the case and their occasionally combative or disrespectful affect.

Kayla Dawson.

The Daily Telegraph can now reveal that on the first day of Dawson and Sione’s trial, the matter was briefly adjourned after the first juvenile co-offender to give evidence was placed in the same small cell complex under one of Sydney’s historic courts as Dawson and Sione.

The court heard at the time the juvenile co-offender’s conduct in the dock had been affected by his allegation that Sione, while they were in separate cells of the same court complex, had said “he should not say anything” if he wanted to be protected in jail.

Justice Hulme said Sione’s behaviour while he was directly in the juvenile co-offender’s line of sight during his evidence had also been “a matter of concern”.

Jason’s mother Rachel Galleghan burst into tears when Justice Hulme found the pair guilty, and stared down Sione as he was led back into custody.

Dawson nodded briefly from a prison audiovisual suite as she learned her fate.

The pair will be sentenced on July 8.