Mert Ney: Sydney stabber to face sentence for Michaela Dunn murder

The crazed knifeman who killed a young woman and terrorised Sydney looked almost unrecognisable during a brief court appearance today.

The crazed knifeman who savagely killed a young Sydney woman before terrorising bystanders as he ran armed through the CBD will learn his fate next year.

Mert Ney’s horrific rampage on August 13, 2019, brought the city to a standstill as heroic civilians chased the murderer through the streets.

Appearing in the Supreme Court from Parklea jail on Friday, the 22-year-old was barely recognisable, with his hair cut short, as he was handed a date for a sentence hearing on March 29, 2021.

Ney pleaded guilty in October to Ms Dunn’s murder, the wounding of his second victim Lin Bo and other charges including cannabis possession and the unrelated assault of his sister.

A milk crate was used to subdue Mert Ney. Picture: Seven News

Mert Ney’s rampage shocked Sydney to its core.

Last August the Marayong man was subdued in a citizen’s arrest by terrified civilians who had chased the armed murderer down a city street before pinning him to the ground with a milk crate and chair.

They did not know he had just killed Ms Dunn, 24, a sex worker he had met at her Clarence Street apartment after booking a $250 “girlfriend experience”.

Agreed facts tendered to court state he was armed with at least one knife and attacked her without mercy, stabbing her and cutting her throat so severely the wound was “deep enough to reach the spinal cord”.

She had also suffered serious defence wounds to her hands and arms.

Michaela Dunn, 24, was murdered by Mert Ney. Picture: Supplied

Her body was found in her apartment in the CBD.

Ney, who had taken a cocktail of valium and cannabis, then sent a video of him standing over her bloody body to a friend before texting: “I was laughing bro”.

“C*** what the f***,” Ney’s friend replied.

“Yeah I’m f***ing psycho,” the knifeman wrote back.

Still armed with the knife he fled the murder scene via a fire escape, leaving behind a trail of blood, and ran out onto the streets.

As he ran through the city he yelled “Allahu Akbar”, and at one point jumped onto a car stopped at a busy intersection near Wynyard.

Ms Bo was stabbed in the back by the balaclava-clad Ney when he slashed at her outside the CBD Hotel on King Street.

Ney was heard yelling Allahu Akbar. Picture: Seven News

Police have cleared Ney of having any links to a terrorist group. Picture: Seven News

A team of civilians including officeworks, lawyers and firefighters assembled and began to pursue him as he ran through the streets yelling for someone to “shoot me in the head”.

He continued to slash out at bystanders along the way and was captured on CCTV downing white pills during a break in his spree.

One man eventually knocked Ney to the ground with a chair before he was swarmed and held down about 2pm.

Ney had been living in crisis accommodation in Blacktown after being kicked out of home as his mental state deteriorated.

On August 4 he escaped from Blacktown Hospital where he had been taken for treatment.

He would tell police in an interview after his arrest he had no memory of killing Ms Dunn.