Father of Keith Kerinaiua blames himself for death of Declan Laverty at Darwin bottle shop

The father of the Indigenous teen charged with murdering a 20-year-old bottle shop worker says his son is the victim of ‘a racist system’ that causes kids to run amok in the NT.

Darwin stabbing victim Declan Laverty, 20.

The father of the Indigenous teenager charged with murdering a 20-year-old bottle shop worker says his son is the victim of “a racist system” that causes kids to run amok in the Northern Territory, and that ​he blames himself for leaving a sharpened knife in the car the teen was driving.

The family of 19-year-old Keith Kerinaiua has decided to speak out, a week after he allegedly stabbed Declan Laverty to death at the Darwin bottle shop when the store worker refused to serve him alcohol.

Mr Kerinaiua’s grandmother blames foetal alcohol syndrome for the tragedy, saying Keith was left neglected and starving as a child in the Tiwi Islands, so she had brought him to Darwin.

“When he was growing up, he always asked me ‘Why doesn’t my mother love me?’ ” she said. “I couldn’t really answer it, I could never answer it properly.”

The young Indigenous man had previously been released on bail after he had been charged with ­aggravated assault with a bladed weapon, and had allegedly stolen a bag, watch and hat.

His father, Fabian Clarke, a knife collector, told The Australian he believed Mr Laverty would still be alive had he not left in the car a knife he sharpened the day before.

“Its my fault that the young fella’s dead,” Mr Clarke said. “If the knife wasn’t in the car, the young fella wouldn’t have got stabbed, and I put it there.”

He says the “racist system” failed his son. “That’s the f..king main reason, that’s why all the kids are running amok, they just sick of the f..king racism, that’s what it is.

“Mum was in the Stolen Generations, my grandmother was in the Stolen Generations, then we’ve got to deal with the f..king racism and all that shit,” he said.

He fears his son will be made an example of in the justice system. “With all the shit going on in Alice Springs and everything else, they need to blame somebody for something,” he said.

Mr Clarke is calling for a royal commission into Indigenous issues. “The courts, the f..king ­policing, we’ve gotta deal with ­racism all the time. I work in construction, I’ve got to deal with ­racism at work,” he said, “always people talking under their breath and getting the stares.

“We go down to the shops (and) we get followed around as if we’re going to steal. This happens all our lives, walk through the neighbourhood, people looking at us (as if we’re) going to break into their houses.”

Keith Kerinaiua was on strict bail conditions, including that he report to police daily, live at an ­Indigenous housing centre with his father and grandmother and not enter the Darwin CBD.

He was under a 9pm to 7am curfew.

His father and grandmother said he was undertaking a concreting course.

“He was talking about he wanted to do an apprenticeship and all that; we talked about his ­future,” Mr Clarke said.

When asked whether he thought there was an issue with youth crime in the NT, ­Mr Clarke said kids were “just getting to the point where they don’t give a f..k anymore”.

“Whatever they do, whenever they try to move forward, they ­always get pushed back, no matter whatever they do,” he said.

“In the construction industry, companies get subsidies from the government to hire Indigenous employees … they bring them on site (but) don’t get them on tools,” he said. “They get them to clean up, they don’t teach them nothing,” he said. “It’s another way for white people to rip money off the Australian government from ­Aboriginal Indigenous people.”

Mr Clarke called on the government to raise the drinking age to 21. “That’d be a big step too … might give the young kids something more (to do),” he said.

Speaking to The Australian, his grandmother, who asked not to be named, said her grandson had foetal alcohol spectrum disorder and ADHD. She said she had been his primary caregiver since he was two. “He would have been chucked in adoption or foster care, but lucky we didn’t have to go that far,” she said.

She said Mr Kerinaiua was “getting neglected and not getting fed and always starving” when he was a child in the Tiwi Islands, so she brought him to Darwin.

She told The Australian her grandson didn’t have a problem with alcohol. “He didn’t start drinking till 17,” she said.

She said he wasn’t going out late either. “It was the first time in months,” she said. “He was just hanging around the wrong crowd, I suppose. He’s one of those boys where he’s very easily led.”

It comes as another weekend of crime in the Northern Territory. On Saturday night, a Subway store was held up in Darwin by five juveniles with “large knives”, a source told The Australian.

In Alice Springs on Sunday children allegedly used a stolen car to ram-raid a business to steal alcohol before causing “destruction” at a shopping centre area.

On Saturday, thousands gathered outside the NT Parliament House to rally against the ­increase in violent crime.

Declan Laverty’s father Damian Crook at the rally said he was worried for the future of Darwin. “I love this place, and I’m hurting for Darwin, I really am,” he said.

“I’m worried people won’t come here, I really don’t want that.

“It’s tragic what happened … we’ve got a long road ahead of us.”