Declan Laverty’s alleged killer Keith Kerinauia guilty of previous stabbing

The victim of the ‘random’ attack said ‘it sends chills through my family members for them to think that it could have been them who had to bury a 20-year-old son, brother or uncle’.

The bottle shop where Declan Laverty was stabbed in March. Picture: Pema Tamang Pakhrin

The victim of a knife attack involving the man charged with Declan Laverty’s murder feels “sick” at the thought of his attacker stabbing the young bottle shop worker while on bail for assaulting him, a court has heard.

Keith Kerinauia pleaded guilty in the Darwin Local Court to aggravated assault after attacking the 20-year-old in company with two other teenagers on Mitchell Street in May last year.

Prosecutor Marty Aust told the court the trio were driving along at about 5.20am on May 14 when they saw the man looking for his phone outside the Istanbul Kebab Bar.

Kerinauia got out of the car and punched the man to the head before the complainant he screamed at him to leave him alone and ran away, with Kerinauia and the other two teens now in pursuit.

One of the three hit the man again, knocking him unconscious and when he came to he saw them standing over him while one of Kerinauia’s co-accused was armed with a knife.

He blacked out again and when he woke up the second time he was covered in blood and suffering stab wounds to his arm and shoulder.

Kerinauia was arrested the following day and bailed by police.

In a victim impact statement read to the court, the man said he had “lost all faith in people” after he was “unexpectedly attacked in my home town and left for dead”.

“I really thought he was going to kill me and take my life for absolutely no reason,” he said.

“The panic and dread I feel when I’m reminded of that night cause me to have terrible thoughts about how close I came to being a murder victim.

“I feel sick at the thought of my attacker being given police bail and being able to offend again, knowing what he was capable of doing.”

The man – who was the same age at the time of the attack as Mr Laverty was when he died – said “it sends chills through my family members for them to think that it could have been them who had to bury a 20-year-old son, brother or uncle”.

“I cannot explain the emotions I felt to see the person who assaulted me standing trial for a fatal attack on another person while he was on bail for the assault on me,” he said.

“I was relieved to hear the offender was finally locked up but it angered me that it took another serious and tragic event for that to happen.”

Kerinauia’s lawyer, Peter Maley, said his client had no prior criminal history at the time and acknowledged the random attack on the man he had never met was a “stupid, stupid thing to do”.

“He has very little recollection of the events, he was drinking heavily,” he said.

In jailing Kerinauia for two years, with a 12-month non-parole period, judge Therese Austin said while it was unclear who had actually stabbed the man, all three teens were equally responsible.

“Usually for someone of your age I might say that you had very good prospects for rehabilitation but I must say that I believe your prospects for rehabilitation are very guarded and that’s because I do know a little bit about something that happened after this event,” she said.

Mr Maley said his client had been on remand for the alleged murder since March 20, with a trial not likely to be held “until the middle, or the latter half of next year”.

“That matter’s currently in the (call over) list and we’re working to try and resolve some potential source of dispute to try and expedite that matter,” he said.