Richard “Dick” Cater murder: Teen pleads guilty to killing 82-year-old while high
A teenager was making “prehistoric” noises when he brutally murdered 82-year-old Richard Cater (pictured) in a quiet Canberra street while “tripping” on LSD he’d bought off the dark web.
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The teenager who violently murdered much-loved Canberra man Richard “Dick” Cater had been taking drugs he purchased on the dark web and was making “monster, prehistoric” noises as he stomped on his victim’s head.
Mr Cater, 82, was a stalwart of the Canberra waterskiing community and was killed in March 2019 while trying to fend the teenager off of a group of friends and family.
The killer on Wednesday appeared in the ACT Supreme Court where he pleaded guilty to murder, intentionally inflicting grievous bodily harm and assault.
He cannot be identified because he was under 18 at the time.
The prosecution case, detailed in court documents, is “that this murder and the associated attacks were the result of drug experimentation gone wrong”.
A police investigation revealed the killer had been buying LSD on the dark web and selling it to friends prior to the attack.
Court documents show, on the night of the attack, Mr Cater was a back seat passenger in a car being driven by a friend, whose name is suppressed.
The killer wrenched open the front passenger door as the driver pulled into Mr Cater’s driveway after the group had enjoyed dinner in Belconnen.
The killer punched his first victim, repeatedly yelling: “I’m going to kill you, I’m going to kill you”.
The killer then turned on his second victim, punching her in the head, biting her hand, and yanking her head so hard it caused a serious spinal injury.
Mr Cater ran off and returned, brandishing a garden spade, hoping to fight off the teen.
The next thing anyone saw, Mr Cater was laying in the gutter having his head stomped.
He never regained consciousness, and died in hospital 10 days later.
The killer was at the time in Year 11 at a school in Canberra’s northern suburbs.
When police who arrived they sprayed the killer in the face with capsicum spray, which had no effect.
It took police more than two hours to restrain him, and it took eight injections of sedatives and tranquillisers to sedate him.
He has been in custody ever since.
In the hours leading up to the attack, he took two tabs of LSD and smoked cannabis from a homemade bong, telling a friends “I’m freaking out” and “I’m tripping, this is crazy”.
An expert report showed LSD can cause a “very short-lived schizophrenia-like state in people with no history of mental illness”.
The killer returns to court for sentencing at a later date.