DARREN Wilson showed no emotion on Tuesday as a jury found him guilty of murdering autistic Scarsdale teenager Timothy O'Brien with an axe.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The Supreme Court jury retired at 12.15pm after Justice Betty King finished her charge and took just an hour and a half to reach its verdict.
Wilson stared calmly at the foreperson delivering his fate, while his mother - his only supporter in court - shook her head.
Wilson was found guilty of murdering 14-year-old Timothy and guilty of inciting to murder key witnesses Lisa Trezise and Peter Williams.
The jury found him not guilty of two other charges of incitement to murder.
In a brutal crime which Crown prosecutors said was depraved, lacked humanity and defied belief, Wilson murdered the 14-year-old by striking him repeatedly in the head with an axe, shortly after another man allegedly initiated the attack on Timothy.
Police found Timothy's dead body, severely injured and with missing fingers, at a Scarsdale house about 5am on January 5 last year.
The jury accepted the prosecution case, with senior Crown prosecutor Andrew Tinney SC telling them Timothy's death was "a natural by-product of the violence of man in the dock".
"It's scarcely believable that a fully grown adult male can see fit to pick up an axe, lift it up in the air, and slam the blade of the axe down forcefully on the head of a helpless, unconscious, 14-year-old autistic child," Mr Tinney said in his closing address last week.
"(It) defies belief that having done that and presumably having felt what it felt like, as the axe smashed into the skull of that child, having done that once, that a man could then see fit to repeat that action, time and time again."
The jury heard Wilson had been devising a plan for some time to lure Timothy's stepfather, Peter Williams, to the house at Scarsdale so he could "give him a flogging".
Wilson and Mr Williams are first cousins and the jury heard Wilson hated Mr Williams, breaking into his cousin's house two days before the murder and leaving a threatening note which read: "Don't f*** around."
It would be the inseparable bond between Timothy and his stepfather which cost the boy his life.
The jury heard Wilson and a 16-year-old girl living at the Scarsdale house, a girl he considered his girlfriend despite knowing her for a matter of days, discussed the ambush plan when Wilson arrived at her house sometime after midnight on January 5.
The girl and two others then drove to Mr Williams' nearby Smythesdale house, knocking on the door about 4am and telling him they were scared of prowlers at their house.
Not knowing that Wilson was hiding in a bedroom, disguised and ready to bash his cousin, Mr Williams went with the women.
Unfortunately, Timothy went too. Armed with a baseball bat.
The jury heard Timothy struck Wilson with the baseball bat after Wilson jumped from a room and began bashing Mr Williams.
Timothy also struck another man with the bat before that man chased Timothy out of the house and allegedly tackled him to the ground before using the blunt side of an axe to strike the boy in the head.
Wilson then came out of the house and began punching Timothy.
One blow to the temple saw Timothy's screams stop, with the 14-year-old knocked out.
Wilson then took the axe, turned it to its bladed side and continued to strike Timothy in the head.
A witness told the jury Wilson threatened others with the axe, warning children in a nearby car "would be next".
Wilson was arrested at his parents' Ballarat home about lunchtime on January 5 and since that day has shown no remorse and continued to deny his involvement in the murder.
The jury heard he was on remand at the Melbourne Remand Centre last year when he asked a fellow prisoner to murder key witnesses, knowing the man could soon be released on bail.
Wilson gave the man, a disgraced former police detective, detailed notes on where to find the witnesses and said he wanted them shot.
He later changed his mind and told the prisoner to drown Peter Williams because he knew he couldn't swim, while he wanted Lisa Trezise to be given a "hot shot" of heroin so it appeared "like death, not murder".
The seven-week trial heard from more than 50 witnesses, with Wilson showing no emotion throughout.
At points in the trial jurors observed him giggling and smiling as witnesses described the other man allegedly attacking Timothy.
He denied his guilt constantly, often heard telling court security that witnesses were "all just f****** liars".
His defence counsel also claimed witnesses lied and contradicted each other throughout their evidence.
Tom Danos, for Wilson, said DNA evidence didn't support the prosecution case, adding the jury should have "significant doubt" about the Crown case.
But they didn't.
Wilson will face a plea hearing in the Supreme Court at a date to fixed.
He could be sentenced by the end of the year.
