Teen who stabbed man with brain injury pleads guilty to murder

On January 28th of the preceding year, a 16-year-old boy pleaded guilty to the murder of 25-year-old Jack Westren, who had sustained a traumatic brain injury from a motor vehicle accident in 2008. The crime took place at Shellharbour Junction train station on the NSW South Coast, where the teenager carried a hunting knife and fatally stabbed Westren in the heart and abdomen.

Six minors, ranging from 13 to 15 years old, and one adult, 39-year-old Tamara Doust, entered pleas in connection with the incident. Doust, the sole adult involved, has pleaded not guilty and will face trial in September, while the other minors have pleaded guilty to manslaughter. Westren was lured to the train station through social media by a group of minors who planned to ambush him.

The boy who pleaded guilty to murder had previously posed as a 12-year-old girl named "Amy" and encouraged Westren to meet up with them. The group of minors included six boys and one girl, who traveled to the train station with the boy carrying the knife. Westren, who had been previously assessed to have "extremely low" intellectual functioning, was targeted by the group after he inquired about the train he would be taking to Shellharbour.

The boy and others brutally assaulted Westren, and the guilty party stabbed him in the abdomen. The group then fled the scene, with the boy expressing regret in subsequent videos. Doust was arrested at her Albion Park Rail residence and allegedly led police to the location where the knife was buried. The five minors involved in the attack are currently on bail and will receive their sentencing in the coming weeks.

The boy who pleaded guilty to murder will be sentenced on September 4th, while a trial date will be set for Doust at Sydney's Supreme Court on the same date.