One of the youngest people in Australian history to be charged with murder, an 11-year-old Perth boy is inconsolable behind bars, according to a close family friend.
The boy who posted pictures on social media of himself with wads of cash and making hand gestures is now reduced to tears in jail.
The boy was one of four charged with the stabbing murder of 26-year-old Patrick ‘Paddy’ Slater outside the Perth Esplanade railway station about early morning on January 27, when a violent fight broke out.
The victim’s younger sister Denise, who was allegedly slashed on the leg during the fight, said a group of about 20 to 30 approached her brother, herself and another sister, and two cousins, who were waiting to for their mother to pick them up at the train station.
Mr Slater then picked his injured sister and carried her to some nearby bushes and told her to hide.
Her brother walked away and tried to divert the attackers’ attention away from her, Denise said.
The attackers allegedly followed Mr Slater, where they stabbed him multiple times with a stab to the heart.
Denise said she watched the brutal attack from the bushes where her brother left her to hide.
Mr Slater died in hospital the next morning.
The boy is housed at the Banksia Hill Detention Centre, in Canning Vale, in isolation from other children, because Mr Slater has relatives in every jail in Western Australia, The Australian reported.
The family friend, who has visited the youth in prison, said the boy was previously a ‘happy’ and ‘respectful’ kid, but is ‘inconsolable’ behind bars.
The boy is allowed out into a yard for about 20 minutes twice a day and has a soccer ball to play with. Authorities are still working on a schooling plan for him in the special high-security unit, his family friend told The Sunday Times.
“He looks a lot older than 11 at the moment... this boy is soaked with pain, with agony,” the family friend said.
Details of the boy’s dysfunctional upbringing have emerged since he was charged for the murder, along with three men — Christopher James Birdsall, 29, Clinton Frederick Mead and Dylan Terrance Wayne Anthony, both 19.
Patrick ‘Paddy’ Slater
The boy witnessed a younger brother being hit and killed by a car, then a few years later the family was evicted from their public housing home. The boy’s father was in jail at the time.
The boy and his family had been living with his grandmother, south of Perth, since.
It is believed the boy’s father, a once promising football player, and some of his older brothers have been in and out of the adult and juvenile prison systems. It is understood the boy rarely went to school, and when he was arrested on February 5, he was not even enrolled.
He will apply for bail this week.
Mr Slater’s mother, Cindy Brockman, said she couldn’t understand how an 11-year-old could get mixed up in such serious trouble, or why he was roaming the city streets at 3.30am.
“I couldn’t believe it actually, I didn’t believe it until I could see it for myself,” Ms Brockman told The Sunday Times.
The family have described Mr Slater as a ‘gentle giant’ with a ‘heart of gold’. A [www.gofundme.com/m3n2wgvv|GoFundMe] page has been set up to raise money for his funeral on February 26.
On the page, the family remembers ‘Paddy’ as a son, a grandson, a brother, an uncle, a nephew, a cousin and a friend to many.
“He was a kind hearted man who touched many lives. Paddy's death has left his family completely heart broken.”
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