THE mother of an autistic teenager allegedly murdered during a planned ambush on his stepfather tried to stop her son from going with her partner and would never see the 14-year-old alive again, a Supreme Court jury has heard.
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Timothy O’Brien’s mother, Deborah O’Brien, wiped tears from her eyes, at times struggling to breathe on Monday, as she recalled the night her son was allegedly murdered with an axe at a Scarsdale home in the early hours of January 5 last year.
“Timothy wanted to go and I couldn’t stop him,” she told the jury. “He just pushed me out of the way.
“I did try to stop him.”
Earlier on Monday, jurors were shown the axe used by Darren Wilson, 34, and another man to allegedly kill Timothy.
The cream-coloured, wooden-handled axe was tendered as evidence alongside the baseball bat which Timothy had armed himself with while trying to protect his stepfather.
Wilson, of Ballarat, is standing trial in the Supreme Court having pleaded not guilty to the murder in which Timothy was struck to the head at least 20 times with the axe.
The jury has heard Wilson had been discussing plans to “flog” his cousin, Peter Williams, in the days leading up to the alleged murder and that Wilson and another girl organised to lure Mr Williams to the property.
At times struggling to relive what he saw happen to his stepson Timothy on the night he died, Mr Williams also gave evidence in the Supreme Court on Monday.
The court was played the frantic triple zero call which Mr Williams made after running from the house when he had just been bashed by Wilson.
He said he was forced to drive up the road to get phone reception, with his call finally getting through.
A shaken Mr Williams can be heard on the call saying his young stepson was still at the house and that it was Darren Wilson who had been waiting there to bash him.
Mr Williams said he drove home to tell Timothy’s mother and sister what had happened, with the group then driving back towards the Scarsdale crime scene.
But the group would never see Timothy alive again, being stopped by police near the Scarsdale Post Office and told Timothy was dead.
The jury heard Wilson and another man were picked up by an associate, Lisa Trezise, the night before the alleged murder.
Trezise, with her two young children in the car, drove the men to the Scarsdale farmhouse before she and two teenage girls drove to Mr Williams’ home and lured him back, telling him they were scared of prowlers.
Crown prosecutor Andrew Tinney SC has told the jury Timothy used the baseball bat to first hit Wilson after he jumped from a room and began bashing Mr Williams.
Timothy also hit another man before being chased out of the home.
The man jumped on his back and allegedly began hitting Timothy with the blunt side of the axe.
The jury heard Wilson then came out of the house, picked up the axe, turned it to its bladed side and allegedly struck Timothy several times before warning Trezise that she and her kids would be next if she didn’t shut up.
The trial before Justice Betty King continues.