Bringelly home invasion: Scott Keighran sentenced after hammer attack to avenge dead mate’s girlfriend
Scott Keighran’s thirst for revenge against the perceived enemies of his dead best friend’s girlfriend saw violent mayhem unleashed inside a rural property, leaving one man fighting for life.
Macarthur
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Scott Stephen Keighran’s thirst for revenge against the perceived enemies of his dead best friend’s girlfriend saw the 34-year-old man unleash violent mayhem inside a quaint rural property in southwest Sydney, leaving one man clutching for life.
After leaving jail on parole only months earlier for his role in an arson attack which ultimately killed his best friend Harley McKenna, the Emu Plains man had returned to a life of abusing alcohol and prescription medication.
One afternoon in July 2018, Keighran picked up McKenna’s former lover Kristen Moriarty and the pair began a night of drinking. Weeks earlier, Moriarty had told Keighran she had been concussed in a violent hammer attack when she went to pick up clothes from her old Bringelly home. Keighran replied at the time, “I will always look after you, make sure you are alright (sic)”.
About 11pm that night, armed with a two-pack of Kmart kitchen knives, the balaclava-clad duo stormed the Bringelly home where Moriarty’s alleged hammer attacker Amanda Brent was asleep.
The homeowner Vincenzo Datillo took Keighran outside to show him there weren’t any cameras where he was ultimately stabbed three times, including once in the back.
Brent woke up to the commotion and heard a man yell, words to the effect of, “all these years you were supposed to be looking after her.”
Moments later, Moriarty had come face-to-face with her alleged attacker and pulled off her balaclava and said “hello Mandy”, before Keighran violently reappeared and punched Brent’s face repeatedly. He then slashed at her throat leaving a 10cm wound.
“I thought ‘oh my god, he stabbed my throat’,” Brent told the court. “He tried to slash it across my throat and I moved my head (backwards) so (the knife) went upwards. We wouldn’t be here having this conversation if I didn’t do that.”
Keighran was shot in the arm as he fled the scene with Moriarty, later crashing the ute on The Northern Rd.
The 34-year-old man’s claim he arrived at the home late at night with no notice and disguised in a balaclava simply to protect Moriarty as she collected her belongings was rejected by Judge Julia Baly in Campbelltown District Court.
“It is clear to me (Keighran) has a level of guilt with the fact that Harley died in the fire and he has become heavily protective of the person Kristen Moriarty, who was the person Harley girlfriend at the time of his death,” she said.
“It was a ferocious attack (on Amanda Brent). It was premeditated and planned.”
She accepted Keighran suffered from PTSD, partly caused from the fiery death of his best friend.
He was sentenced to a aggregate total of seven years and three months jail, with a non-parole period of four years and three months for wound person with intent to cause grievous bodily harm and reckless wounding in company. He will be eligible for release on October 16, 2022.
Moriarty will be sentenced for her role in the violence on Thursday.