The parents of an 18-year-old who died from multiple stab wounds after a fight at a Canberra skate park have given a devastating account to the ACT Supreme Court of the night of their son's death.
A boy, who was 15 at the time, is on trial for murder over the 18-year-old's death and has pleaded not guilty.
But the teenager has pleaded guilty to stabbing the victim's 16-year-old cousin, who survived his injuries.
All three males were involved in a fight, involving about 12 people, that was sparked after two of those present had a disagreement on Snapchat.
Parents describe hearing of their son's death
The parents of the 18-year-old today described the last time they saw their son and how they learned of his death, in police interviews played to the jury.
The man had driven his cousin and two of his friends to the Weston Creek Skate Park for the organised fight.
The court heard how the young man had been a keen boxer and had trained in a gym and at home in the garage.
His father described how he had last spoken to his son about 11pm, saying the 18-year-old had been warming himself by the heater and was on the PlayStation.
The pair discussed how he should not stay up too long because their family was planning to take their "snow" dog to the snow at Corin Forrest the next day.
His father said he thought he heard his son going downstairs in his boxing shoes later in the night, but heard nothing more until he was woken by a call from his brother to say their sons had been in a fight.
The father went to the scene where police told him that his son had died.
"That was a little before 2[am]," he said.
The man's mother said when she had initially heard her son was in trouble she had tried to contact him.
"I started calling [his] phone and he wasn't picking up and I knew something was wrong," she said.
She said when her brother-in-law told her what had happened, she dropped the phone.
Both parents said it was out of character for their son to have left the house without telling them.
Trial to rely on circumstantial evidence
Yesterday, the jury heard the 18-year-old was stabbed six times, and that two of the wounds were about 12 centimetres deep.
Prosecutor Rebecca Christensen told the court no one saw the alleged murder, meaning the case would rely on circumstantial evidence, putting the accused boy at the scene, with a knife and the opportunity to carry out the stabbing.
The jury heard CCTV footage from across the road from the skate park showed that from the time the first of three cars arrived for the organised fight, the brawl lasted only a bit over two minutes.
Ms Christensen said her case was that, in that time, the occupants of one car descended on the two victims, beating them until someone emerged from their car saying he had a machete.
She said she would show the people involved in the initial attack then retreated to their car, retrieving garden tools, which they used to smash up the victim's car.
The jury was told it is the Crown's case that it was during this lull that the accused boy delivered the fatal wounds.
'I think I stabbed the guy you were fighting'
Ms Christensen also told the court part of the evidence would include accounts from other witnesses about what the boy told them after the fight.
That included a remark he is alleged to have made in the car to another person as they were driving away.
Ms Christensen said some of the witnesses reported seeing a knife tucked into the waistline of the boy's pants.
Another is expected to tell the court how he overheard a conversation where the boy said he had stabbed about seven times, that "he just did it and kept doing it".
"We say the only conclusion is that he stabbed [the pair]."
But the boy's lawyer David Barrow said he would raise questions about the teen's opportunity to deliver the fatal stab wounds, and whether the other witnesses were telling the truth.
The jury has already heard the boy claimed to have thrown the knife down a drain, and the weapon has never been found.
Mr Barrow also told the jury he would look into what he called the "arsenal" of knives found in the homes of the others present at the fight.
