Doonside death: Boy, 16, remembered as ‘lovely’ Coogee beach mate

The teenager killed at Doonside last week has been remembered as “the sweetest boy” for his acts of kindness during a summer on Sydney’s beaches.

The young boy who died in an alleged ambush bashing at Doonside last weekend has been remembered as “a lovely kid” who enjoyed nothing more than being at the beach during the summer.

More details can be revealed about the 16-year-old, who cannot legally be named, as friends and family pay tribute to the teen in the wake of his tragic death at the weekend.

The young boy, who is believed to have had ties to Marrickville and at one point attended Pagewood Public School, left an unforgettable memory on locals on the eastern beaches for his soft and gentle nature.

Coogee woman Janey Alderman said she was shocked when she learned the 16-year-old boy at the centre of the tragedy was the same boy who spent the summer hanging out at the beach with her children and other teenagers.

The boy, 16, died of serious injuries in hospital at the weekend.

She said any Coogee local who spent time at the beach in the summer of 2018 probably spoke to him.

“He would just start talking to us every time we were at the beach and we’d always say hello,” she said.

“He was really lovely to my son and he always treated him with kindness.

“He’d lend his boogie board to him and for me it was lovely that he wasn’t left out. Other kids just played normally but he knew he had to be different with him.”

The young boy is believed to have spent that part of his childhood in South Coogee and it remains unclear how he ended up in Doonside in recent years.

Friends have remembered him as “the sweetest boy”.

He was also not known to police around the inner west at the time of his death either.

Ms Alderman said the young boy who was at the beach on his own every week that summer and became friends with her daughters was “dead normal” and built up a strong group of mates on the sands.

“He was always ridiculously brown, crazy brown tan,” she said. “We’d sort of joke that he slept all night and all day in the sun.

“His face was lovely … we knew nothing about his family and me being a mum the first couple of times I asked what school he went to and he’d be quite evasive, not rude but he would say ‘I’m changing schools’.

The young boy reportedly built up a strong group of mates in Coogee, who described him as “a beach boy”.

“He just seemed totally secure and safe in himself. He was just so lovely he just spoke to me so lovely and I know some kids don’t but he’d just be so polite.

“He was just a really nice boy who you wouldn’t really think anything of. I was in a state on Saturday when my daughter told me.”

Police allege the boy died from serious injuries last Saturday after being lured to a home in Doonside by 19-year-old mother Kayla Dawson before another group of teenagers are accused of assaulting him before posting the disturbing footage to social media.

“He was a beach boy, the sweetest person you could ever meet and made friends with everyone whether he knew them or not,” one friend from Coogee said.

“He was always happy and energetic and thoughtful, talkative and knew how to uplift peoples’ moods.

“He was generous he always used to let (my friend) use his boogie board. If you grew up in Coogee you most likely saw him and talked to him.”

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