‘No, wake up!’: Tradie’s words after killing best mate with kitchen knife
An apprentice plumber has been jailed after stabbing his best mate at an Airbnb, uttering three heartbreaking words after the killing.
A tradie who stabbed his “loyal and loving” best mate with a kitchen knife at an apartment party will be eligible to walk out of prison in 2025.
Rian Farrell, 23, was sentenced to seven years with five years non-parole by judge Jane Dixon in the Supreme Court of Victoria on Tuesday, having already served 409 days behind bars after his arrest.
He plunged a knife into the chest of Liam Cahill, his best friend since childhood, during an out-of-control fight on May 30, 2020, at an Airbnb in Docklands.
The conflict began when Mr Cahill, 22, punched another man at the party “unprovoked” after a “harmless” remark, Justice Dixon said.
Mr Cahill then refused to leave.
He punched Farrell as he was asking him to get out, and Farrell fought back with at least four punches thrown.
They grappled in the apartment, knocking over bottles and sending food flying.
Mr Cahill pushed Farrell into the kitchen bench and Farrell reached behind him, grabbed a kitchen knife and stabbed his friend.
He later told police it was a “split-second decision” and he thought Mr Cahill was going to hit him with a bottle.
As a murder trial was being put together, Farrell offered to plead guilty to manslaughter.
After the stabbing, police and an ambulance were called.
When Farrell saw police he made a run for it, balcony hopping from the 15th level down two floors, running through a random 13th-floor apartment to the elevator and travelling down to the lobby.
He was nabbed by police as he sprinted towards the exit.
Justice Dixon said she accepted the killing was “excessive self-defence” and Farrell was remorseful.
She said the stabbing was “disproportionate” and “not justified” in the context of the fight.
As Mr Cahill bled out in the hallway of the apartment complex, Farrell was heard crying out, “No, wake up!” and, “Please don’t die, it can’t be true.”
He told police that Mr Cahill was his best friend.
In a victim impact statement, Mr Cahill’s father Timothy Cahill said Liam was a “loyal and loving son” who would do anything for his friends and family.
“He feels empty and expressed that the pain of losing his son will never cease,” Justice Dixon said.
Farrell had been drinking and consuming cocaine at the party.
His father told the court that Farrell had gone into a “downwards spiral” after losing his job as an apprentice plumber a few months earlier because of the pandemic.
Justice Dixon said young people needed to be deterred from getting into fights while under the influence of alcohol and drugs.