Chadley Sheridan found guilty of murdering autistic 16-year-old boy at Charlestown unit

Chadley Sheridan has been found guilty of murdering a 16-year-old boy in a Charlestown home, with the jury finding his psychotic state was due to the temporary effects of taking ‘ice’.

A jury has found a man who strangled an autistic teenager to death while he was asleep in his Charlestown unit guilty of murder.

Chadley Sheridan, now 25, was charged with killing the 16-year-old boy at the Charlestown Rd unit on March 15 last year.

While the 25-year-old admitted to strangling the teen, he pleaded not guilty, with his defence team claiming he was mentally impaired due to psychosis from an underlying condition.

The jury heard Sheridan did not know what he was doing was wrong at the time of the attack.

The crime scene at Charlestown. Picture by Peter Lorimer.

But prosecutors were able to prove his psychotic state was due to the temporary effects of taking ‘ice’ and that he was criminally responsible.

In the NSW Supreme Court at Newcastle following a trial of more than a week, the jury returned on Thursday morning with the guilty verdict.

Sentencing proceedings are due to commence in November.

During the trial, the jury heard Sheridan had been injecting ice that night and was intoxicated, and that he was having “auditory hallucinations” and hearing “a lot of weird voices”.

There was evidence that Sheridan was “acting peculiar” on the day of the attack and was upset and not himself.

Detectives at the Charlestown unit after the body of the teenage boy was discovered. Picture by Peter Lorimer.

His brother Lydon Sheridan observed he was “completely off” and was “distraught and not present”, although noted that he had started to come good when he arrived back at the Charlestown unit on the Monday afternoon.

The Crown told the court Sheridan had used three methods to strangle the teen, with his hand, pillow and cord, and that changing use of methods went to his state of mind and his intention to kill the 16-year-old, before he took positive steps to distance himself after what he did.

However, Sheridan argued he was suffering an “abnormality of mind” and had no intention to kill and only had good intentions towards the teen.

Medical experts also gave differing opinions on what his psychosis was caused by.

Detectives at the Charlestown unit after the body of the teenage boy was discovered. Picture by Peter Lorimer.

Dr Nielssen told the jury Sheridan had “lost reality” and his thought process was impaired due to an underlying mental illness, although Dr Eagle cited Sheridan was suffering from a temporary substance induced psychosis based on his symptoms she had observed.

Last week, CCTV footage had been played in court of the moment the father of the teen found his son unresponsive and lifeless on the bedroom floor with blood coming from his mouth.

Despite efforts by the father and later paramedics, he couldn’t be revived.

In giving evidence, the father told the jury he welcomed Sheridan, who had moved from Evans Head, into his home and he and his son were “getting on well” and that he had not seen him taking drugs.

The court heard on the night of the attack, Sheridan was drinking Woodstock and cola cans and was playing the Sony PlayStation in the loungeroom of the unit, when the father and a friend left at around 10pm.

They were gone for less than an hour before the father said he received a call from Sheridan, telling the jury the 25-year-old sounded upset and he could hear him crying on the phone.

After midnight, 45 minutes after the father had returned to the unit, he went to check on his son, but when he went inside he was found on the ground.

CCTV footage from a neighbouring home opposite the Charlestown units showed Sheridan fled the premises in a car at 12.38am.

Sheridan was arrested in the carpark of KFC at Thornton less than an hour later before being taken to Belmont police station where he was later charged.