Duldong Majiok Deng pleads guilty to manslaughter over death of Yohana Apai

A man who fatally stabbed a stranger on a tourist beach carried a knife to cope with his anxiety.

A man who fatally stabbed a stranger in front of a crowd of people at Melbourne’s St Kilda Beach was carrying a knife to cope with his anxiety.

Duldong Majiok Deng, 24, has pleaded guilty to manslaughter after the death of Yohana Apai, a young member of Melbourne’s African community.

Deng sat motionless in the dock of the Supreme Court of Victoria on Thursday while his victim’s family and supporters took up two bench spaces in front him and listened while statements revealing the impact of the shock death were read out to the court.

Prosecutor Kathryn Hamill said Deng was supposed to be living with his mother in Traralgon, two hours east of Melbourne, on the evening of October 27, but the court was told he was instead in St Kilda, where he had been drinking and was armed with a knife.

Yohana Apai was fatally stabbed by Duldong Majiok Deng in St Kilda in October 2021. Picture: Jake Nowakowski

Ms Hamill said if Deng had been complying with his bail condition, the offence would never have happened.

She said the stabbing occurred in a public space against a young man who was “for all intents and purposes a stranger to him”.

Ms Hamill said there was “nothing” to show that Mr Apai, who was 24 when he died, had been acting in an aggressive manner before he was stabbed by Deng and the incident attracted the attention of a large number of people in a public space.

Mr Apai’s family outside the Supreme Court of Victoria on Thursday. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Valeriu Campan

In a victim impact statement read out by Ms Hamill, a member of Mr Apai’s community said they had lost a “great and loving young man”.

The statement said Mr Apai volunteered his time to help members of his community with their schoolwork as well as providing financial assistance.

“We are hoping for justice,” the statement said.

Forensic psychologist Patrick Newton told the court that Deng was “horrified and ashamed by the outcome of his actions”.

Mr Newton said Deng alleviated his anxiety, which he said had arisen through his experiences as a refugee, cultural dislocation and a difficult family upbringing, through the use of alcohol, Xanax and cannabis.

He said Deng’s anxiety also led to him carrying a knife.

Mr Apai’s community said they had lost a ‘great and loving young man’. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Valeriu Campan

Julia Munster, for Deng, said the “gross overreaction to the altercation” indicated a compromised mental state, and Deng was “still a young man”.

Ms Munster, who said Deng’s mother, brother, aunts and uncles were upstairs in the public gallery in support of him, had “accepted responsibility for his actions” and shown “genuine remorse and insight”.

She said Deng was on bail at the time for offences that were ultimately discontinued.

Deng will be sentenced in May by Justice John Champion.

Originally published as Duldong Majiok Deng pleads guilty to manslaughter over death of Yohana Apai