A teenager has pleaded guilty to the murder of a petrol station attendant in an attack that allegedly left the windows smeared with blood and was investigated as a possible act of terrorism.
On the day the 17-year-old was due to face a jury, he stood before a judge and admitted to murdering Zeeshan Akbar, 29, on the night of 6 April, 2017, and taking part in a carjacking a few hours later.
One of his female supporters retched outside the Darlinghurst Courthouse. A dozen of his victim’s family and friends observed his confession from the gallery.
The prosecution and defence are yet to agree on the circumstances of the offences.
The Herald has previously reported that video footage tendered in the children’s court showed the then 15-year-old entering the Queanbeyan Caltex service station with his 16-year-old friend, who chased and stabbed Mr Akbar. The 15-year-old took what appeared to be a tyre iron from beneath his clothing and removed the till from behind the counter. The pair then smashed through the doors to get out of the store.
Mr Akbar’s blood was allegedly used to scrawl a word on the windows of the service station, which looked like an attempt at the word ISIS. Police said at the time that there was evidence to suggest the events may have been related to terrorism. But a local court magistrate said during a bail hearing in 2018 that all references to terrorism were introduced by the older teenager.
The older teenager, who is now 19, has pleaded not guilty and will face trial next week by a judge alone due to mental illness.
The pair were alleged to have followed the attack on Mr Akbar with a violent crime spree through the suburbs of Queanbeyan that included a further stabbing, a bashing and a home break-in, which ended with police pursuing them down the Monaro Highway towards Gilmore.
The body of Mr Akbar, a cricket player who came to Australia from Pakistan to study and had just been offered citizenship, was not discovered until his colleague arrived at midnight to start the next shift.
The teenager who pleaded guilty will appear before Supreme Court Justice Geoffrey Bellew on October 31 for sentencing submissions.
Extracted from SMH