Arrested teen released after claiming self-defence

A teenager who helped an injured woman who fled to his home is released from custody after claiming self-defence in the stabbing deaths of two men.

Teenager Dean Webber who was released from police custody yesterday.

A teenager who helped an injured woman who fled to his home has been released from custody without charge after claiming self-defence in the subsequent stabbing deaths of two men at a small seaside town in north Queensland.

It emerged yesterday that Dean Webber, 19, had helped an injured and distressed 29-year-old Candice Locke when she rushed to his Alva Beach home, south of Townsville, in the early hours of Monday.

After Mr Webber let the woman — whom he did not know — inside, a “group of men” went to the house and were involved in a “disturbance” there, Queensland police said yesterday. The disturbance ended in the stabbing deaths of Alva Beach ­father of three Corey Christensen, 37, and Tom Davy, a 27-year-old from Tea Gardens, north of the NSW city of Newcastle.

Queensland police had taken Mr Webber into custody following the deaths but yesterday released him without charge.

The injured woman Candice Locke.

One police source said the teen had told investigators that the two men had broken into his home after the woman came to his door to seek help.

A police spokesman confirmed the teenager had “assisted the woman” after she was involved in “an earlier incident”.

Ms Locke, who worked at the RSPCA, remains in hospital with a shoulder injury from that previous incident and has been interviewed by detectives.

“It is understood the 19-year-old man did not know the woman or the men prior to the incident,” police said.

Detectives have not ruled out laying charges as they continue examining the home at the centre of the deaths.

Thomas Davy, one of two men who died after a stabbing in Alva Beach.

“It is extremely complex,” Detective Inspector Chris Lawson said of the ongoing investigation.

“We’re dealing with a number of legal issues and with a number of people. We’ve located all the people we need that were identified in the initial scene.

“But we’re still trying to locate a number of people around the area just to confirm what had ­occurred just prior to the incident at the dwelling.”

He said police were examining whether the teenager had acted in self-defence.

Queensland police will now prepare a report to the coroner over the deaths.

Mr Webber, who describes himself on social media as an ­apprentice fitter, was seen limping when he returned to the house yesterday. Inspector Lawson declined to comment on why Mr Webber was limping.

Stabbing victim and father of three Corey Christensen.

The teen’s social media accounts were unable to be accessed last night, following his release.

It is not clear why Mr Davy had been in Alva Beach on Sunday night, or what relationship — if any — he had with Mr Christensen and Ms Locke. But he and Ms Locke were connected with each other on social media, where Mr Davy had been posting photographs of a fishing trip that had taken him from NSW to as far north as Cairns, before beginning to travel south again.

According to a post by one of his friends, Mr Davy was “finally living your dreams of selling the house and taking your boat up north to spend your days fishing and only occasionally fixing those aeroplanes”.

Ms Locke had been living in Townsville, but according to her Facebook she had also moved to Ayr, not far from Alva beach.

Mr Christensen had been ­living in the town with his wife and children.